Voyage of the Massena
by Dragon Cat84
Summary: This is a pure Battlestar Galactica 2003 spin-off story which splits off from the mini-series and explores a new direction. This is purely for fun not intended for anything but fun
1. One Voyage of the Massena

One – Voyage of the Massena

The everything had gone to hell. The Cylons had returned and the fleet had been destroyed the worlds of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol had been bombed into oblivion from orbit and all that remained of civilization was a group of refugees on board a group of civilian ships and a single old battered Battlestar Galactica.

Now orbiting the Ragnar Station on the edge of Colonial Territory Captain Matthew Boyle the commanding officer of the freighter Massena had been invited onboard the Galactica and was escorted through the old ship to the Commander's quarters. In his youth Boyle had been a member of the Colonial Fleet and served as a Viper pilot for five long years before he received an inheritance and decided to go into commercial shipping buying the Massena.

"Sir, Captain Matthew Boyle of the Freighter Massena for you." The marine guard said entering the personal quarters of Commander William Adama which resembled an old sea going ship with items from throughout Commander Adama's career and life, this was not just the place that the Commander worked but also his home.

"Thank you, you're dismissed" Adama said as the Marine closed the door behind them "Captain Boyle welcome onboard Galactica."

"Thank you, Commander" Boyle said looking at the man who looked like he had been through a fight recently with his head bloodied.

"I assume you are wondering why I've called you here today Captain?" Boyle nodded "I know of you but we haven't met as far as I can remember?" Boyle shook his head "I heard about the Leonis Incident fourteen years ago you risked the life of your ship and crew to rescue those civilians."

"That was the mission, sir, but no antics like that now only cargo runs for the last ten years."

"But your ship is capable of atmospheric flight?" Adama asked

"Yes, it is" he said beginning to not like the sound of the questioning.

"Then I have a mission for you if you're willing to accept it?" He asked Boyle remained silent so Adama continued "the President has convinced me that we need to leave the system to continue our species but I can't help but feel we are abandoning those we've left behind to the Cylons." He said "I want you to take your ship back into Colonial space and pick up anyone you can and try to evacuate them from the combat zone."

"One ship without support won't be able to do much."

"No, you won't but I am hoping that you will encounter surviving Colonial Fleet elements that you could use to bolster your numbers before following Galactica's path. We will be following the old Kobol Exodus Path in an attempt to find Kobol or any other lost human settlement." He explained giving Boyle a general direction "I will detach six Viper Mk II fighters and two Raptors and a maintenance crew of three for mission support we'll also be maxing your tylium tanks should you accept. Captain, this is a voluntary mission, I do not expect you to agree to this now consult with your crew and let me know before tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Commander, I'll do just that" he said his mind racing he had a crew of forty-eight adding in the ten pilots and three crew would make for sixty-one well within the Massena's capacity to transport but asking the crew to give up on a chance of survival away from the Colonies would be a hard sell.

Back on board the Massena Matthew Boyle called his forty-eight-strong crew together in the main cargo space an area that should he accept the Commander's mission would become the hanger for the Viper and Raptor craft. "So that's what he is offering us." Boyle said going over Adama's plan "I personally prefer it to the idea of heading off into deep space to gods knows where. We have enough space for five hundred people on this ship" he said seeing the looks he was getting "I know it is not an ideal situation but at least this way we wouldn't have to follow Colonial Fleet's every move."

"We'll still have a bunch of Viper pilots and Raptor crews" Morena Harold the ship's chief engineer pointed out.

"Who will be dependent on us for transport and fuel" Boyle said

"You think Adama knows about our hidden talents?" Will Stonagal asked curious about the reason the Massena had been chosen for this mission.

"It's possible" Boyle admitted the Massena was formerly a military transport craft and had several of their weapon emplacements had been refurbished and now along the ship's hull were eight quad-cross turrets four on the upper hull and four on the lower hull. To hide them from Colonial fleet they were hidden by dummy shipping containers which had been attached to the outer hull. "They won't save us from an assault from one of the Cylon Basestars but they should give us an edge the other civilian ships wouldn't have."

"You really think we can do this boss?" Nick Holden asked

"I think we have a good chance, I wouldn't come to you all if I didn't think so" he said looking around their faces "look at me we are not going Basestar hunting." He said levelling with his crew "but we have an opportunity to search the worlds of the colonies for our families. We'll complete Adama's mission but we'll do it our own way with our first stops taking us to each of our homeworlds." He said to them "I won't force this upon you" he said continuing to look at them "everyone gets a vote and it will be confidential vote for yourselves people."

Several hours later Matthew Boyle sat in his personal quarters and sent a message to Commander Adama onboard the Galactica which was two words. "We're in"

Later that evening the Galactica turned towards the mouth of the Ragnar storm moving to defend the fleet's exit point the huge Battlestar spun in space turning its guns towards the Cylons who were arranged above from its launch bays the Viper Fighter squadrons moved away from the craft clearing its firing arcs. Almost as one the ship's massive weapons battery engaged the enemy vessels above setting up massive flak barrage swatting dozens of Cylon Raiders and missiles in a single barrage.

As the first civilian ships moved out of Ragnar's atmosphere and jumped clear the Vipers engaged the Cylon raiders adding another element to the battle. "Dead slow Jayne we're not going this time." Boyle said watching the sensor displays around his small command bridge. Like a Battlestar the Massena's command deck was deep within its hull but unlike a Battlestar which had a large multi-tiered room the area inside the Massena was very small. At the front was a pilot and navigator, then either side of the command deck was communications and sensors before a set of doors which allowed access to compartments either side of the command deck. At the back was the cargo bay handling station, engineering command and weapons stations.

"Look at that fur ball" Victoria Kryvych said looking at the sensor screen "they must be outnumbered three to one."

"They are outnumbered but all they have to do is hold up the Cylons." Boyle said watching as the Galactica's fighters began to take losses six of the Vipers peeled off from the main body and dived down on the transport. "Here comes our people Alisan make sure the launch bay is ready."

"We're ready, both Raptors docked just before the fight began, space has been cleared in the bay space for the Vipers." The dark-haired woman said unlike the Battlestar Galactica which had two flight pods which ran along the side of its hull and contained the recovery and launch facilities for the ship's small craft the Massena's launch bay was located under the main hull of the vessel between the vessel's engine pods.

As the Massena floated closer and closer to the battle zone the six Vipers entered the landing bay from behind. "Landing bay secure!" Alisan called out as the six Vipers were confirmed to be on the deck.

"Jump us to Styx" Boyle ordered seeing Galactica's fighters beginning to turn back towards the massive Battlestar "good luck Galactica, may the Gods be with you." Boyle whispered as the vessel disappeared in a flash of light heading back into the Colonies. In the space around Ragnar Galactica rapidly recalled its fighters and also jumped but instead of back into the Colonies they jumped away.

The Massena appeared in the near Styx to find it abandoned "DRADIS scan" Boyle ordered

"Cylon units over Aerilon, Canceron and Aquaria. Phoebe, Hiesta and the belt look clear." Victoria Kryvych reported glancing over her DRADIS readings again "no Colonial signatures."

"Understood shut down long range DRADIS. Rask, take us into the belt." He said the older man looked back at him with a questioning glance before he nodded and the Massena headed into the belt. "Once in the belt we will run a single long range DRADIS scan every hour for the next twenty-four" he said looking around the crew. "We are searching for any Colonial signals in space or on the ground. We're going to find the other survivors in this system before we move on." He said before heading to the exit.

"Where you heading?" Victoria asked

"To meet our Colonial Navy." From the bridge he headed below decks to the hanger bay which hadn't been used for anything more than cargo shuttles and Raptors for the last dozen years. Now there were six Vipers and two Raptors on the deck along with their pilots and techs. A young dark-haired female approached she was at least ten years his junior but gorgeous her lips moved but for a moment Boyle didn't hear her. "Sorry what was that?"

"I'm Lt Isabelle Rhodes, callsign Cassiopeia, and you are?"

"Boyle… Matthew…" Boyle stammered out for a moment "I'm Matthew Boyle, Captain of the Massena" he said immediately the young pilot snapped a salute. "At ease Lieutenant I'm not fleet." He said she lowered her salute but remained ready.

"With respect, sir, Commander Adama placed you in command of this mission that makes you at least a fleet auxiliary officer and still my C.O."

"I like the attitude, Lieutenant, what about your people? Ready to kick some toaster ass?" he asked but before she answer the ship announcer sounded.

"Captain Boyle contact command, Captain Boyle contact command!" Victoria Kryvych called to the ship. Matthew Boyle turned and jogged across the hanger to a wall intercom.

"Command, Boyle, go ahead."

"Sir, we hit have a contact. Appears to be a marine transport requesting assistance with Cylon Raiders near Aerilon." She reported Boyle became aware of the Viper pilot having followed him over by the intercom.

"Has anyone else answered?"

"No sir"

"Right then we do what we came here to do. Spool up the FTL and prepare all weapons, we're going in." He said turning back towards Lt Rhodes "Ready to kick in some toasters?" He asked bringing a smile to her face heading back to the Command Bridge as she headed back to her Viper squadron.

Entering the bridge, it was a hive of activity as the crewmembers prepared the ship for jump. "Sub light engines on stand-by, targeting sensors online, weapons secure, hanger secure, launch bay secure." Will Stonagal called out.

"Ready to jump" Rask Milano said looking over at Boyle.

"Take us in" he commanded leaning on the bulkhead for support as the small ship launched itself across the system in an FTL jump. They emerged not far from the stricken infantry transport which was surrounded by twenty or more enemy raiders. "What have we got?"

"It looks like an older Ranger-class Cruiser, it's twice our size but it's been mostly disarmed. She's still got her anti-ship missile tubes but minimal point defences." Victoria reported quickly as the Massena continued to power closer. "Sensors show FTL offline – a ship that old it might not even be installed anymore."

"Launch Vipers" Boyle ordered knowing fine that they'd be outnumbered three to one "Morena open the launch bay and deploy the Hunter. Get me Cassiopeia on the wireless."

"Who?" Jon Kamen asked from the communications console.

"The lead Viper pilot" Boyle explained the younger man nodded and a moment later nodded again "Massena to Cassiopeia."

"I'm a little busy to continue our chat!" She shouted dodging fire as another Raider dived towards her they hadn't lost a Viper yet but it was only a matter of time with the number of Cylons arrayed against them.

"Understood I'm just giving you warning we're adding some support to the mix." Boyle said Cassiopeia was about to argue when she saw what the support was a large craft two or three times the size of a Colonial Raptor it had a thin main fuselage with two bulbous turrets either side of the forward hull and another at the rear between the twin engine nacelles. Immediately the ship was spitting out fire causing heavy damage to the Raider units.

"Vipers form on that craft knock any raider down that tries to engage her." Cassiopeia commanded as there was another jump flare as a Cylon Basestar jumped into the area. "OH FRAK! Massena we've got more trouble."

"Basestar jumped in!" Victoria shouted a warning at the same time as Cassiopeia. "Engine flare on the Ranger, and multiple cargo pods detaching, it's going for the Basestar. Missiles launching from Ranger." She said rapidly updating them of the DRADIS picture around them.

"Have our Vipers and the Hunter hold at the escape pods mop up the remaining raiders and begin to retrieve those pods." Boyle commanded turning to his Chief engineer "Open Cargo Bays Four and Five to space bring those pods in."

"That's some valuable merchandise…" Morena protested but Boyle raised his hand

"We're not selling anything at the moment this is the mission we need to save those people." He commanded as the Massena moved towards the cargo pods doors opened on the side of the ship venting cargo into space while the Ranger charged at the Basestar taking hits all the time. Around the Massena Vipers, Raiders and the Hunter battled for aerial supremacy while the Massena grappled with the first pod and dragged it inside the ship. "Rask, move us to the next one." Boyle said as the Ranger suddenly turning into a supernova its armour penetrated by Cylon missiles the Cylons instantly switched targets towards the Massena and the cargo pods. "We need to move fast" he commanded as the second pod was reeled into the Massena's cargo hold as Cylon missiles filled the space around them with one striking a third cargo pod obliterating it killing the people inside leaving one remaining. "By the gods recall the Vipers and Hunter prepare to blow away weapon concealment" he said he'd hoped to hold off on showing their final surprise but the Cylons were massing for another assault.

"Don't do it!" Rask called from Helm "I can't manoeuvre to bring the guns in line with that Basestar and get the pod. It's one or the other." He said moving the ship alongside the last surviving pod.

"Can we reel them in and move at the same time?" Boyle asked but Rask had already began accelerating the ship.

"It's not going to be comfortable, but yes we can." He said as Vipers streamed into the hanger pod and the Hunter returned to its launch bay on the top deck. Capital missiles from the Basestar and Raiders chased down the Massena.

"Pod onboard" Morena said triumphantly, "pressurizing the cargo bays and spooling back up the FTL."

"Hanger secure, landing bay secure, all systems read green."

"Jump us back into the belt we're going to lay low while we find out who we've rescued today." Boyle ordered glancing at the DRADIS image of the destroyed Ranger and the starshaped Basestar just before the Massena jumped clear of the combat zone.


	2. Two Survivors

Two – Survivor

Making his way through the ship Captain Matthew Boyle entered one of the Massena's three port side cargo bays to see the massive cargo pod dominating the centre of the bay its black form battered from long service. As he entered he saw Cargo Chief Anthony Chara and crossed to meet him and spoke to him as the main entrance door of the cargo pod opened Lt Isabelle Rhodes ran into the bay throwing him a quick salute as she saw him. From the cargo pod Boyle saw three individuals walking out carrying assault rifles as he approached Rhodes joined him.

"What do you see, Lieutenant?" He asked the young pilot to his side.

"The lead is a marine Major the other two I can't see ranks and both look young." He said quietly

"I'm Captain Matthew Boyle, the commander of the Massena, we answered your transport's distress call."

"Major Patrick Sinclair, commander of the 432nd Training Division based off Aerilon, what happened to our ship?"

"They ejected your AscentPods into space before being destroyed by a Cylon Basestar we recovered three pods." Boyle explained

"Three! There were eight pods on that ship over two thousand trainees and civilians!"

"I'm sorry for your losses, it's been difficult for everyone the last couple of days, but what we do now is what matters."

"I agree Captain and with your permission I am commandeering this ship for military use and taking command of your vessel" Sinclair explained.

"No" Boyle said glancing at Lt Rhodes standing beside him she didn't indicate how she would react. "I am the commander of the Massena" he said raising his hand immediately both of Sinclair's compatriots trained their rifles on Boyle but Sinclair himself didn't move Boyle guessed they were trainees "easy boys no need for anything hasty." He said showing that his hand held a small box "this is a commlink nothing more" he explained as behind him the cargo bay inner doors closed "my crew has heard your plans, Major, and they don't agree with you. They have full control over this ship's internal systems. I assume you have cutting equipment in that AscentPod you could try to cut through the pressure doors but I promise you that they will blow you and me into space before you get through one door."

"They'd kill you? We are at War, Captain, the military has taken heavy losses we need every ship we can get if we are going to stay in the fight."

"The fight is over, sir, the Cylons defeated us" Rhodes said speaking for the first time Sinclair looked her up and down and saw her rank insignia.

"Lieutenant, get your ass on the line, you can explain why your fighters have joined up with this traitor later." The Major ordered but Rhodes remained routed to the spot.

"No, sir, I answer to Captain Boyle. Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galactica placed us directly under the command of Captain Boyle and tasked this vessel with a mission" she said explaining her actions "Captain Boyle was acting in accordance with Commander Adama's request when he rescued your people and as long as he continues to serve the Commander's wishes I serve under the Captain's command."

"Adama and the Galactica survive?" He asked stunned the ship was ancient it had no right to have survived when newer more capable ships had been destroyed.

"He and approximately seventy thousand military and civilians survive." Boyle said

"Thank the gods, you need to take us to them we need to regroup and prepare for a counter-attack how many Fleet vessels survive other than Galactica?"

"The Battlestar Galactica is the only surviving military vessel" Rhodes said cutting in Sinclair almost seemed to stagger under the news as if he were a sailing ship that was fighting against the winds.

"Then we are doomed."

"No, we are not." Boyle said "Major, your people can help us complete this mission Commander Adama tasked this ship with finding survivors of the holocaust that has struck our people and bringing them to the fleet."

"Which is where? Why didn't Adama leave the fleet at Ragnar and take Galactica into the fight?" Sinclair asked confused at why a civilian transport had been tasked with finding them.

"Galactica is leading the fleet away from the Colonies Ragnar wasn't safe enough for that number of ships it was too tempting a target."

"He's running?"

"He's protecting our remaining population." Rhodes said defending her former Commanding Officer. "The Massena is searching for more people who could later join the fleet."

"If Galactica stops to wait for us" Sinclair said "and if we have enough support ships to provide us with food and fuel." He noted thinking it was unlikely that the Galactica would be stopping anytime soon.

"Those are high on my list." Boyle promised him "we're going to avoid direct contact with the Cylons, but contact will happen and unfortunately that is where your people could come into play."

"Captain, I'll be honest with you." Major Sinclair said in a more reconciliatory tone. "The marines I command are mostly trainees. While I suspect I do still have enough to take this ship if required" he said raising his hand to forestall any complaints of a threat from the Captain. "I just want you to understand I have the resources to overwhelm yours but I won't use them if you stay on Adama's mission."

"We'll not drop your people in the deep end Major, but we are going to need each other. What I'll need from you immediately is to keep your people in line we don't need trainee marines moving between the decks."

"I'll keep them restricted to this deck and the next? We will need the exercise room for some activities."

"Agreed Major" Boyle said "now let's go look for more survivors." Boyle said "there's a research facility at Hestia, we're going to check that."

"Lead the way Captain" Major Sinclair said Boyle wasn't convinced that he was happy with the arrangement and wouldn't be a problem in the future but for now he had command.

Several hours later the Massena flashed into existence near the gas giant of Hestia completing its jump. The ship arrived in open space and immediately dived towards the planet below. Hestia had seventeen moons two of which were inhabited those were the ship's target on one of them Kronos which had a colonial research facility with nearly one hundred scientists among them was a family member from a member of the Massena's crew. "Begin DRADIS scans for Cylon units, scan for transmissions from Aerlion and Canceron." Boyle commanded mostly for the benefit of Major Sinclair who was handing around at the back of the bridge. Personally Boyle didn't want to go near either world.

"Sir, Aerlion has a Cylon Basestar over it" Victoria Kryvych said both colonies orbited around Hestia at an equal distance meaning they'd have to watch out for Aerlion's orbit.

"We'll be avoiding that, even with Vipers we don't have the resources to take them on and evacuate anyone."

"Communication signal from Kronos" Jon Kamen said "it's on a point-to-point laser. They know we're here but no-one else should pick it up."

"Put them on speakers."

"This is the Colonial Research Colony Kronos 4 Colonial vessel please identify yourselves." A female voice said by the sound of her voice she had been crying recently, much like many others in the Colonies recently. Boyle reached for the hand held microphone attached to the console above his chair.

"This is Colonial transport Masena" Boyle said "we're ready to assist if you require it."

"We have one hundred and twenty-three souls down here and we're running low on air following a Cylon surgical strike. They left us to suffocate."

"We're ready to assist standby" he said cutting off the transmission "options people."

"Between the Raptors and Hunter we could evacuate them but it'll take time." Rask Milano suggested "we'll have to stay in range of it for an extended period."

"I don't want to stay here long."

"How about using one of our AscentPods?" Sinclair suggested "I evacuated half of my people from it and leave the rest for security. We drop the pod and pick it up when it's full I'll command the ground operation. You can manoeuvre as you need to." Boyle sat and thought for a moment then turned to the Major.

"If you think you can pull it off do it." He said "we'll be ready for your return."

The Massena continued to descend towards Hestia turning as it approached the planet so it's cargo bay was facing in the right direction. On board marines quickly left one of the AscentPods preparing it for action.

"Boyle to Sinclair, you ready?"

"We're standing by Captain, launch when you're ready, we'll be back soon."

"Good luck" Boyle said moment's later the AscentPod was ejected into space and sent towards the planet. Quickly accelerating the towards the planet, the Pod entered Kronos atmosphere falling rapidly towards the ground. "By the Gods rather them than me." Boyle said watching the pod fall. As the pod passed into the moon's atmosphere thrusters kicked in slowing its descent rapidly while airbrakes deployed giving further control to the pilots who brought the pod down towards the research colony. AscentPods were originally designed in the First Cylon War they weren't pretty and they weren't subtle but they got the job done.

On the ground Kronos was not a nice place. While habitable it was a desolate rock with thin desert sand covering most of the world. Where the Cylons had struck the oxygen generators there was a black hole in the ground filled with smouldering wreckage. Sinclair and his marines rushed out to see multiple people already leaving the research facility running across the ground towards the AscentPod leading them was an Asian female with dark hair and delicate features. "I'm Dr Sharon Cameron head researcher on this base."

"Ger your people on board we don't have a lot of time here."

"By your command Major, what military ship sent you." She asked once closer to him.

"Not a military ship just an insane civilian trying to put the world back together."

"Very good" she said swinging a punch at him knocking Sinclair to the side. To the far right a dozen Cylon Centurions emerged from the sand and began to fire at the crowd hitting several people instantly. The marines moved into a defensive posture as the doctor and Sinclair fought hand-to-hand.

The Centurions continued to close on them taking hits from the Marines all the time but also causing casualties among the civilians and the marines.

"What the hell are you doing!" Sinclair shouted as he fought the young woman who was a lot stronger and more durable than she appeared.

"Humanity is a plague, it deserves to be wiped out." She said her voice almost sounded robotic as she spoke but she was flesh and blood like him. Sinclair decided that there was no other way and attempted to draw his sidearm which the young woman reacted to stripping it from his hands knocking him backwards. Before she could fire on him two marines from different sides brought their weapons to bear and fired on her killing the young woman almost immediately one of the marines was cut down by a hail of bullets.

"Hold the frakking line" Sinclair commanded reaching for his wireless "Massena, we've been attacked by Cylon ground forces and collaborators. Be prepared for incoming. We've got multiple casualties down here!" He turned to a pair of civilians "you two pick that up we're not leaving her here." He said pointing at the body of Sharon Cameron, there was something not right with her.

In space the Massena was being approached by a group of four Cylon raiders. From the underside of the ship the Vipers launched to counter the Cylons. "Blow off the turret covers, target those fighters, inform Cassiopeia we're defending ourselves she's to keep her fighters off to the side."

"Affirmative" she replied as the Massena's container camouflage blew off and all eight of their turrets were brought to bear on the incoming fighters. Immediately the Cylons began evasive action but the Massena's turrets already had lock on targets wasting no time the Cylon fighters were cut down. Moments later six more fighters jumped in from a different vector approaching the Massena this time the Vipers countered their moves cutting one raider down instantly. "Massena, we're going to start taking casualties if we're out here long."

"Understood keep yourselves safe." Boyle said as the ship continued to manoeuvre the Vipers danced around the stars.

"Sinclair to Massena we're loaded and ascending."

"Great timing" Boyle said as the Massena continued its turn "Cassiopeia, all Vipers, bug out I repeat bug out. Weapons, flak barrage on those Cylons. Helm, set course back to Kronos and prepare an FTL jump as soon as their aboard.

As the fighters attempted to disengage from the Cylons Michael "Brainwave" Cooper was hit by incoming fire and his Viper exploded reducing their number to five. Clear of the area the remaining Vipers avoided the Massena's incoming barrage that destroyed the remaining fighters and headed back to the launch bay as the Massena manoeuvred.

Unlike a Battlestar the Massena's type of support ship had been designed to move during combat and avoid enemy fire instead of taking hits and Boyle knew how to move the ship. As it dived and turned the AscentPod was beginning to break out of the atmosphere heading towards orbit on its powerful thrusters. Unfortunately once it reached orbit those thrusters wouldn't be able to do much else as the AscentPod didn't have deep fuel reserves.

Diving toward Kronos orbit the Massena fired several grapples and pulled the AscentPod towards the ship drawing it back inside as more Cylons jumped in. "Landing bay, secure, AscentPod on board" Morena Harold reported from the back of the bridge.

"Get us out of here, jump" Boyle ordered and the Massena disappeared in a flash before the raiders could reach them.


	3. Three - Taking Stock

Three – Taking Stock

The Massena emerged from the jump into the Aeolus Asteroid belt which was clear of Cylon presence. Captain Matthew Boyle glanced around "full scan."

"We're alone Captain, no Cylon signals in the area."

"Colonial?"

"None, both known mining complexes have been destroyed all we're reading is wreckage." Victoria Kryvych said

"You'd have thought they would have missed some of it" Boyle said disappointed "it's fine, disappointing but fine, we need to plan our next move."

Two hours later Boyle was sat in the ship's crew mess along with several of the senior representatives in the crew. "We're succeeding" he said quietly "we are making a difference, we saved seventy-two people from Kronos, but as time goes on we're to struggle with food and space. The Massena can only carry so many people" he said plainly turning to his chief engineer.

"We took a couple of strafing hits from the Cylon fighters" Morena Harold said "but the armour kept it out unfortunately if the Cylons break through with one of their capital missiles it's going to make a mess." She said "we also don't have enough space to grow food or the seeds needed if we could."

"My people may be able to help with that" a dark skinned bald man said speaking up he was the senior surviving scientist from Kronos and had a deep but pleasant sounding voice. "We've been made quite comfortable so far Captain, I appreciate your efforts and the efforts of Major Sinclair and his men" he said glancing at the marine commander they'd lost several men fighting the Centurions. "However, we think that we could be of more use by cutting three of the quarters into one turning it into a research lab with hydroponics facilities."

"Agreed" Boyle said after a moment glancing at Morena Harold who nodded "work with the engineers, we'll convert what we can without compromising ship integrity."

"We're also going to run into fuel troubles" Harold said adding another part "with Massena, the Vipers, Raptors and AscentPods all being used we're going to be going through fuel quickly. Even with Galactica topping off our tanks before she left we've got a finite supply.

"Understood, we're going to work on replenishing the fuel and ammunition." Boyle added turning to Lt Isabelle Rhodes "sorry for your loss Lt Rhodes"

"Thank you, sir" she replied by the redness of her eyes he could tell she'd been crying recently "Cooper was a good stick he'll be missed. His loss does add to our CAP coverage Captain, even with the Hunter and Raptors as backup more Cylons will get through in open combat."

"Which is why it's time for us to try and combat all these problems at once." Boyle said "there's little in the way of a chance of finding more survivors here." He said looking around the table "instead we're going to jump in the morning to Helios Alpha."

"Fleet Headquarters?" Sinclair demanded in orbit around Picon was the Colonial Fleet's main headquarters complex a place that had been hit with several dozen nuclear weapons during the opening assaults. "Captain, with respect that place got hit hard by the Cylons, there isn't going to be survivors there."

"No" Boyle admitted "likely not but we'll find fuel, ammunition and possibly further small craft" he said.

"Picking the bones…" Rhodes said he knew he'd find the worse reactions from them two. "Perhaps we should jump into the deep reach of the system, we'll avoid the main battle sites."

"Good idea, maybe near Zeus, slip into the moon complex that should provide us some cover." Boyle suggested.

"Same trick you played at Hestia, probably not the best plan Captain the Cylons aren't stupid." Dr Simon Tellar suggested "perhaps instead Persephone" he suggested naming the dwarf planet in the Helios Alpha system.

"Persephone is off the beaten track" Morena Harold noted

"Exactly somewhere the Cylons wouldn't be looking initially. Perhaps send a Raptor in then Massena could follow." Tellar suggested around the room there were several nods from other people.

Several hours later the Raptor had been deployed from Massena and ordered to jump to the Helios Alpha station the ship soon returned from Persephone with a message for the Boyle. "Saladin to Massena important message." The female Raptor pilot said seeing their mothership.

"Go Saladin" Boyle returned from the bridge

"Sir, we've found survivors near Persephone three ships, they're under attack by Cylon forces. One of them is an Adamant-class Frigate." She said naming an ancient Colonial ship dating back to the first Cylon War.

"Prepare to jump" Boyle commanded immediately a chance to save another fleet ship was too much to let go. "Saladin, complete jump yourself and take up a SAR role when in theatre."

"Affirmative" Saladin replied

The Massena and the Raptor jumped into the space near Persephone near the battle site and launched its Vipers and the Hunter immediately. "Massena to Colonial unit's we're heading to assist you." He said seeing the small Adamant-class Frigate and a group of Vipers defending two civilian ships one was a civilian heavy transport which looked like it was in its passenger configuration with blue-and-white livery and the other was a strange black coloured vessel which appeared to be a long rectangle in shape with a square engine section at the back and a small control section on the top of the hull. Around them were nearly a dozen Cylon raiders all trying to take down the defending Vipers even as the Massena approached two Vipers were shot down by Cylon units.

"Keep it close and tidy people" Isabelle "Cassiopeia" Rhodes said to her fighters "Hunter you follow us with the first pass and then move into close proximity of the transports, you're their escort. Everyone else we keep as many of those pilots alive and keep the Cylons busy." She ordered the six craft shot through the gap rapidly moving through the Cylon formation cutting down nearly half of the Cylons. Behind the pass the Hunter moved into close proximity with the transports assuming an escort role while the fighters continued to dance through the area.

"Cylon Basestar!" Victoria Kryvych shouted out as the Massena moved into the conflict area "their firing missiles."

"Use flak munitions" Boyle ordered as the ship slipped into formation with the other three ships "coordinate fire with the Adamant."

"They are distributing jump coordinates" Jon Kamen reported

"Incoming!" Kryvych reported as a Cylon missile got through the defensive fire striking the port side of the ship's upper hull blowing away armour plating. "Hull breach" she said turning to Boyle "we lost two compartments doors holding but we lost people."

"Accept the coordinates"

"Adamant identifies as the Agosta"

"That's a frakking museum!" Boyle said looking at his own screen "what is it with those things?" He wondered thinking of the Galactica and its own status before the Cylon attacks.

"Yes, sir, somewhere they've found a crew and munitions, they've got too many Vipers for their bays and are requesting permission to land ships in our bay."

"Granted" Boyle said as the ship was rocked by another hit or close miss "Boyle to Sinclair"

"Go ahead" Sinclair said from below the ship's desks.

"We're going to have more Vipers joining us. I'd like some of your marines to be present to see what we've got and make sure there's no issues between our pilots and the newcomers." He explained the marines were not police units but from one military unit to another they should be able to keep order at least.

"Affirmative Captain, we'll get the job done" he as Massena took another missile strike to its hull "if there's a ship left for us!"

"We're working on it."

"Coordinates check out" Kryvych called out "Civilian ships jumping away." She said as the two civilian craft jumped clear.

"Recall the Hunter, have the Raptors jump to with the civilian ships. Recall all Vipers, communicate with Agosta as soon as she's ready to jump we go too" he ordered as the Massena took another missile impact on its hull. Were the Massena a civilian craft she'd have split in two the ship's military transport lineage was showing through as it weathered the impacts but she wasn't built for this. The Agosta had taken hits as well and that ship's age was showing as well from Boyle's monitor he could see the ship was sagging slightly to port as its thrusters struggled to keep it going. Quite a motley fleet they were forming.

"Vipers aboard, Agosta ready to go."

"Get us the hell out of here, Jump!" Boyle ordered the FTL spun up and within a couple of moments the ship jumped clear of the area arriving in another area of space. "Report where are we?" Boyle asked his ship was fairly becoming a military craft with him barking orders, he didn't think he liked it much.

"We're in dead space. Agosta, our Raptors and both transports are present." Kryvych said looking at her readings "We're close to a rogue asteroid" she said continuing as the DRADIS cleared up. Rogue asteroids were dangerous purely because they occupied a piece of space where there should be nothing "there's another ship approaching it's a Manticore Customs Cutter." She said glancing over at Boyle "they came out of that asteroid." She said as the small craft arced around them and took up position alongside them before accelerating forwards guiding them back towards the asteroid.

"What is this place?"


	4. Four - Those who remain

Four – Those who remain

The Massena was led to the surface of the asteroid following the Manticore down through a deep canyon with the Agosta and the freighters behind. At the bottom of the canyon they found a massive open cave and were directed to a landing zone by the Manticore behind them the other ships quickly followed to their own positions. At the far side of the cave sat a large ship known as an Atlas class Carrier a type of vessel that had been retired at the end of the First Cylon War.

The shortest Raptor journey took Boyle, Sinclair and Lt Rhodes to the Atlas on board they met the ships commander. "I'm Captain Catalina Pena" she greeted them from her accent placed her as a citizen of Virgon she was in her late thirties if Boyle had to guess and had a darker skin complexion which matched her Virgon accent she wore a red waist coat over a black shirt.

"Captain Matthew Boyle" he said in response "how did you survive?"

"This place is a smuggler's hole" Pena replied "the Kortenaer" she said raising her arms "was abandoned here after the First Cylon War when her back broke during a jump." She explained "we've kept our heads down. The crew of the Caerphilly were known to us through various deals and troubles over the years and joined us soon after the fall of the colonies our joint operations led us to salvaging the Agosta from a museum."

Over the next several minutes Boyle explained the mission he had been given by Commander Adama and the status of the Galactica and its fleet when the Massena left them. He also explained where the Massena had been since the fall.

"We have 3,000 people onboard the Kortenaer." Pena explained "we've got a short supply of food and conditions are cramped. As the Kortenaer is unable to jump we've begun to look for additional vessels capable of transporting the people off this rock before we're discovered."

"Your mission is my mission" Boyle said "we're in this together" he said

"I agree Captain, as your ship has orders from Colonial Fleet and has the greater combat strength, I'm ready to surrender operational command to you."

"I've never commanded more than Massena" Boyle responded looking at Sinclair and Rhodes "we'll adopt my plan for the Massena" he suggested "regularly ship captains and senior personnel will meet and plan our mission forwards."

"As you wish Captain" Pena replied

"To reflect Massena's superior military position, I suggest you take a higher rank than Captain." Sinclair said looking at Boyle "and due to my rank and your position as fleet commander I suggest you take the rank of Colonel." He said showing his willingness to be subservient to Boyle.

"I agree" Pena said "I'm sure the other captains will also agree."

"Fine" Boyle said accepting the concession it'd take some getting used to but he'd accept the change.

Hours late Boyle was back on board the Massena as the ship was being repaired from the Cylon missile strikes taken in the previous battle. Boyle stood in main engineering with Morena Harold "how are we getting on."

"The hulls airtight in all sections again. We're working on creating Dr Tellar's science section we're going to have to cut four crew quarters into one on this deck along the port side to create their laboratory. It'll reduce our living space but a half dozen of the scientists that want to stay onboard have agreed to bunk in there too." She suggested which should stop it causing issues for their space limits.

"What about the civilians?" Onboard they had forty-three civilians from Aerilon including some children.

"Most have taken jobs on ship as you requested. Some with small children have agreed to transfer off onto one of the other transports' others have joined Major Sinclair's troops. We've a few teenagers who wish to stay onboard but they're too young for most jobs."

"Put them in the mess, they can clean dishes, wash floors" Boyle suggested Morena Harold gave him a sideways glance "if they want to stay onboard, they work. We don't have options to respect age limits for service."

"Yes, Colonel" she said smirking at the use of his new rank.

"As for your increased responsibilities I want you to accept the position of XO." He said surprising her "I know I've said we didn't need one but Massena's going through a lot of changes and we've got an increase Viper complement and new Raptors."

"Thank you, I agree" she said smiling.

Later Boyle was in the Flight Operations box of the Massena's landing bay where he found Lieutenant Isabelle Rhodes who was overseeing operations. "How are we getting on?" He asked seeing she was watching some readings.

"The new Raptors aren't able to jump but have rear guns so we're trying to pair them with the Hunter to see if they can work together. We think that if the Raptors have external ordinance and their rear gun manned, they'll form a formidable force. I've split the Vipers into two squadrons of ten fighters fortunately there's enough Mark II's and III's to fill our billet the Agosta has retained the twelve Mark I Vipers she had when she was a museum while there is still a dozen more Mark II Vipers on board, we'll have to find places for. We've accepted seven of the civilians as pilot candidates and some of them as techs other's we've taken from other ships."

"You're doing well" he replied looking at the makeshift rosters which she'd set up for checking on the pilots. "Lieutenant, I know you are a Colonial Warrior and have been given your commission through Colonial Fleet but as of today I'm promoting you to Captain and to Commander of the Air Group."

"Colonel, I've only been a Viper jock for a few months, been in the saddle of a Viper Mk II for even less time." She said protesting.

"None of us asked for what has happened" he said putting his hand on her shoulder "but you've clearly got a grasp on what we need to do. You're the CAG Captain and that's the end of it."

"Thank you, sir," she replied looking over her shoulder onto his hand and then at his face "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't next stop Picon, we need to find more transports." He explained

Some time later Colonel Matthew Boyle was in one of the marine training areas with Major Patrick Sinclair. "I don't like it." The Major said looking at the Colonel "marines are taught to fight the enemy, if we start deploying them as police units, we'll have problems."

"I don't want you to give me a marine force. I want a police force, I want a detachment of people we can trust on every ship that will keep on top of crime on ships, and a force that we can rely on to distribute food and supplies fairly." Boyle explained "the more civilian ships we have the more trouble we'll have keeping them in check."

"You going to run a military dictatorship?" Sinclair asked half-jokingly.

"Negative, not what I want" Boyle admitted "but I want to be able to keep them in line if we need to if things get hairy and I don't want the weak prayed on either. You lot put me in command of this fleet I'll do all I can by them."

"Oh Gods we've created an idealist." Sinclair joked he was far different from the first time that Boyle had met him Boyle wondered if it was due to his new-found rank and authority that Sinclair saw him differently. "I'll have some of the newer recruits trained in the use of non-lethal weapons and in crowd control without cutting our numbers too much. I'm also going to put a detachment of marines onto the Agosta since the museum doesn't have its own. The Custom's Cutter doesn't have the space onboard for marine troops."

"Very good thanks for the support Major."

"You keep treating our people right and you'll have my full support, Colonel" Sinclair answered. "Back to Picon?"

"Back to Picon, we're going to finish what we started." Boyle replied

Three days passed and the Massena was prepared for its jump back to Picon. Rising from their hidden canyon the ship conducted a quick scan of the area around to be sure that they were alone which was soon proven to be correct. One of the jump capable Raptors jumped out heading to Picon scouting the area before returning to confirm everything was clear.

In a flash of light, the Massena vanished from beside the asteroid and moments later reappeared in Picon system. Within moments of arriving in the space near Picon the port side of the Massena exploded open in fire as two decks decompressed explosively blowing several compartments and their contents, including crewmen, into space. Power across the vessel stuttered and then failed leaving the damaged ship dead in space.

Survivor Count: 3,954


	5. Five - The Massena

Five - The Massena

Survivor Count: 3,848

Secondary explosions continued to rip through the Massena's hull as the ship's structure buckled and broke under the damage the explosion had caused. On the command deck Colonel Matthew Boyle looked around the bridge to see many of the crew nursing bumps and bruises but looking mostly intact. "What happened?" He struggled out feeling the ship rock heavily.

"Massive explosive damage to port hull." Victoria Kryvych said from his right-hand side she hadn't taken her eyes off her systems.

"Did we hit something?" He asked wondering if they'd struck some unexploded munitions.

"Unknown… running analysis" she said she was silent for several moments she stopped doing anything but was staring at the screen.

"Victoria" Boyle said speaking her name to try and get a response.

"Colonel" she said looking over her shoulder "sir, the explosion occurred inside our hull it blew through our port side and engineering section." She said Boyle immediately reached for his communication microphone.

"Engineering respond." He said "engineering this is bridge someone answer."

"Captain, this is Engineer's Mate Toby Onwumere" the Engineer said forgetting his Captain's increased rank. "The Chief's dead, there's so many dead down here, we've got a hull breach down here we need to evacuate." He struggled out

"Get out now, Engineer" Boyle ordered "Boyle to Sinclair, Major if you can hear me, I need some of your people down to engineering now they've got casualties down there."

"We're on our way, Colonel, do you know what happened?"

"Some sort of internal explosion we're still working on it." Boyle responded switching the channel "Captain Rhodes, I need a Raptor to jump back to the asteroid and tell them what's happened. We're going to need support." He said turning back to the sensors station "Victoria, anything else?"

"The initial explosion originated in the science quarters… another explosion blew up a couple of seconds later in the sections directly above and below it." She said looking back

"Son of a bitch we took them in and they stab us in the back." Boyle snarled angrily "Sinclair, this is Boyle, get some troops to the science sector as well. I want them all arrested and put somewhere secure until we can figure out what is going on." He said below decks a single Raptor launched from the vessel's hanger bay and quickly jumped out of the area.

Within an hour the Colonial Heavy Transport which had previously been recovered jumped into the area with the Raptor escorting. Onboard the Massena they had completed a head count and one hundred-and-six souls had been lost to the explosions which had blown through the port side of the hull. Chief Engineer Morena Harold was among those who were dead and more damaging to their cause was that the ship's FTL engine had been destroyed.

Several hours after the Heavy transport had arrived Matthew Boyle stood in a meeting room with his remaining senior officers. Boyle looked around "we've done some research" he said and reached over to a nearby wall pressing a button it displayed a message in binary "this message was received by Dr Simon Tellar before we jumped to the asteroid. We believe it is Cylon in origin." He said looking at the others who looked shocked "he's like the head researcher at the facility appears to be a collaborator to the Cylons."

"It's unbelievable" Victoria Kryvych said

"Why would they?" Captain Rhodes wondered

"I have no idea" Boyle admitted "but that is a question that will have to wait instead for now we need to concentrate on the here and now. Major Sinclair has placed all of the remaining scientists onboard under arrest. Several were killed by the explosion but there were several in other sections until we know their status we're keeping them in isolation." He said "we're going to evacuate as many of the injured as we can to the Colonial Transport. We're also going to transfer as many of the Vipers as we can to that ship and send it back to the asteroid." He saw their shocked looks "we have to face facts people this is probably the final flight of the Massena."

Several hours passed and the Transport jumped away with nearly eighty casualties and fourteen of the ship's Vipers leaving six onboard for defence. Unable to make repairs to the jump drive the ship Boyle carried on with his plan to search the world of Picon for survivors and transports who could help evacuate the asteroid and continue the human race.

"DRADIS contact" Victoria Kryvych called out looking over at him "wreckage, Colonel, Colonial Warships" she said looking over at him "one of them is the Atlantia… what's left of it." She said as the Massena continued towards the wreckage of the Battlestar Atlantia. The once mighty flagship of the Colonial Fleet was missing the majority of its upper hull and its entire port flight pod.

"Scan it, it's possible there are air pockets onboard her" Boyle said looking at the screens the vessel slipped past the wrecked vessel.

"We're not detecting anything…" Kryvych said stopping mid-sentence "wait one, we have movement from the Atlantia four contacts."

"Identify" Boyle ordered

"Four Vipers and a military shuttle" Kryvych responded after a moment as the four Vipers and shuttle approached.

"Raise them" Boyle commanded Jon Kamen nodded a moment later "this is Colonel Matthew Boyle of the Massena please respond."

"Massena, this is Lieutenant Jonas Maliki, Colonel we're all that's left of the Atlantia's Battle Group." He said "eighty-two souls. Please say you can help us." He said as the four Viper Mk VII fighters and transport continued to rise towards them.

"Affirmative, Lieutenant, come into the bay." He ordered the Vipers and shuttle quickly docked with the vessel and Boyle made his way to the hanger meeting with Major Sinclair and a group of his marines. They entered the hanger bay to find the pilots disembarking from their fighters and the passengers from the shuttle joining them. Boyle was aware of the of Sinclair's marines fanning out either side of him as they approached Jonas Maliki was a dark-skinned man with long hair and a well-trimmed beard. "Welcome onboard"

"Colonel, you're not Colonial fleet…" he said glancing either side of Boyle "Major, you and your marines are?"

"The Colonel is in charge, Lieutenant, this is his ship and he's on a mission from the Commander of the Galactica you'll answer to him if you want to stay onboard." Major Sinclair said nodding towards Boyle when he looked at him.

"Understood" Maliki said looking back at Colonel Sinclair "we'll stay, I can vouch for those onboard we're just glad to have found someone who can help us. You can help us?"

"Well we can give you more of a chance than you had before" Boyle answered "unfortunately our FTL is currently in pieces so we won't be rushing out of here." He explained the truth was plain to see on Maliki's face "fortunately we're not alone we have allies nearby who will assist us." He explained not going into details "for now we need to know how did you avoid the Cylon onslaught?"

"We were training nearby among the asteroids when the Cylons hit the Admiral ordered us to stay low. We did so until they passed then we returned and began to pick up all of those that we could." He explained "where is the Galactica?"

"Leading a fleet of civilians away from the Twelve Colonies." Boyle said "we'll hopefully meet up with them in the future if not we'll do all we can to keep people safe."

Hours later the Massena was a distance from the Atlantia's wreckage still heading for Picon with no Cylon presence detected. Boyle sat on the bridge waiting for them to find something "why are they not here?" Boyle wondered to himself more than anything.

"Probably because they destroyed everything that was here." Sinclair said entering the rear of the bridge.

"How are our new guests getting on?"

"Shell shocked by what's happened to them. We've cleared the shuttle and the Vipers of the CNP navigational program and loaded older models onto them" Sinclair explained "most of the shuttle passengers are maintenance staff from the Battlestars in Atlantia's group. They survived due to being below decks on their ships Maliki's people did wonders getting them off those ships onto that shuttle which has no right to still being flying."

"This ship has no right to still being flying it's a running trend" Boyle admitted the Massena was having near constant power issues since the explosions that had damaged the vessel when they arrived near Picon.

"How long?"

"Maybe a few more days" Boyle admitted "then we'll have to call in the freighters and evacuate but before then we'll get to Picon and we can see what remains of the world." He said

"And the shipyards?" Sinclair asked wondering about friends who may have been there with their ships when the Cylons attacked.

"In ruins" Boyle said "most of them have already fallen into Picon's atmosphere. The rest will follow them soon and Picon will be uninhabitable."

"A sorry end" Sinclair said

"Along with the rest of the colonies."

Two days later the Massena arrived near Picon above the world the shipyards continued to descend into the atmosphere heading for the planet below. From orbit the Massena began to scan the ground looking for signs of survivors.

"Unbelievable" Will Stonagal at the weapons console said "Colonel, there's a Heracles-class Gunship on the planet's surface it appears to be fully intact and we're receiving a positive reply from its FTL. The Cylons must have classed it as a non-threat due to its age, they haven't been in use since the early stages of the first war."

"Show me an orbital shot" he said looking at the screen as it changed to show the long thin hull of the gunship settled in its ground-based maintenance cradle. Boyle reached for his microphone "Major Sinclair, are you near a monitor."

"AscentPod 3, Colonel" the Major replied through the Comm.

"What do you see?"

"A tempting target for any survivor, and a trap." He said there's probably Cylon forces hidden all around that area waiting for you.

"But it's the only thing we've seen that would make this trip worth it."

"I agree Colonel, my people are ready when you are."

Over the next three hours they came up with a plan and launched their attack. From the side of the Massena all three of the marine's AscentPods launched towards the ground followed by the ship's complement of Vipers, Raptors and the Hunter. Behind them the Massena descended into the atmosphere intent on landing and offloading all of its remaining passengers onto the Gunship.

From the ground concealed missile batteries opened fire on the incoming Colonial force immediately knocking one of the Vipers from the sky blowing it to pieces. "Keep your spacing!" Cassiopeia shouted as a second volley of missiles streaked up this one directed at the Raptor force the large ships electronic suites protecting them. "Maliki use your speed hit them" she commanded as the AscentPods came in for a landing around the Heracles and marines charged out to attack. From the undergrowth around the docking facility Cylon Centurions raised firing cutting down many marines immediately but their numbers couldn't match the number of marines nor the airborne support.

"Apex to Cassiopeia, we're coming around again" Maliki replied the four Viper Mk VIIs turned around in space blowing up another of the missile points. From behind the Vipers and Raptors the Hunter and the Massena appeared and opened fire with their combined weapons bombarding the area around the drydock.

"Their heads are down helm put us on the deck" Boyle ordered "weapons keep firing as long as our weapons can hit them then get to your evacuation point."

"The Marines have breached the Gunship's hull no traps so far the Cylons were hoping their trap would hold back anyone getting too close."

"Good news" Boyle said as the Massena touched down on the ground "right people, grab your ready bags and let's go. We are not coming back." He said looking around. Outside Vipers and Raptors were keeping the ground forces in check cutting down the Cylons as they formed. As soon as they were able the Massena's crew and passengers also began to make their move from the Massena to the other ship.

As the crew ran across the broken concrete ground between the two ships the Vipers continued to strafe Cylon ground positions. Above even them there were sonic booms as Cylon fighters entered the atmosphere. "Apex, Cassiopia, support our ground force we'll taken on those fighters." Maliki said turning his fighter with him the other three Viper Mk VII craft turned and rose through the atmosphere intent on opposing the incoming Cylons. As they closed both sides opened fire three Cylon craft exploded under the Vipers sustained fire. Both formations passed through each other and the four Vipers spun chasing after the still diving Cylons. "Their intending on opposing our taking over of the Gunship." Apex warned as they chased after the Cylons below them the Hunter suddenly appeared all four of its turrets filling the air with concentrated fire cutting down another four Cylon craft. "Pull up, pull up!" Apex shouted a warning to his fighters avoiding the incoming fire "Hunter, check your fire, remember you're with friendlies now!" He warned as the four Vipers spun away from the incoming fire put up by the Hunter.

"Sorry Vipers this is a busy environment!" The reply came back a moment later

On the ground the Massena's crew entered the Gunship and began to move through it. "Everyone without a duty find a seat and get comfortable!" Boyle shouted standing near one of the airlocks "security teams sweep the ship for Cylons, engineering team get this bird ready to fly, command team follow me" he ordered heading through the ship. Everyone was armed and ready for threats but there were no threats onboard instead pressure doors opened for them and lights seemed to activate automatically.

Entering the CIC they were greeted by a round room on two levels with a situation table in the centre of the room beside the table there was a gangly thin looking man with short brown hair and stubble. He wore a white shirt with a utility bodywarmer over the top. He immediately put his hands up seeing Boyle's weapon on him. "Wow, wow, wow hold your fire my name is Leoben, I'm an arms dealer and I just wanted to steal this ship!" He said immediately "I found this thing needed a bit more than me to fly it, I've been waiting for you" he saw Boyle's face twist "I mean you, anyone, who could help me get the hell out of here… please say you can."

"We can" Boyle said his weapon not leaving him. "Sorry, but we've been burned a couple of times so far so you're not staying in here while we prepare." He said turning to a pair of marines who were with the command team. "Marines escort Mr Leoben below decks we'll deal with him later." He said turning back to Leoben "go with these men they'll find you somewhere to stay until we find you quarters." The arms dealer looked at the marines then put down his hands and nodded his agreement leaving the command deck "lets lock it down." He commanded behind them the pressure doors of the CIC closed behind them. "CIC to engineering, seal up for take-off, activate engines when you're ready. Rask, get us in the air. Jon let the fighters know we're moving we'll still need cover since weapons aren't manned yet."

A few moments later the Heracles lifted off the ground and began to lift into the sky. The ship lacked aerodynamic surfaces to lift it up through the atmosphere but the massive engine block behind the ship and thrusters below the craft were more than enough to lift it. Around the ship the Vipers and other small craft continued to hold the Cylons at bay as they left Picon behind.

"Ok what do we have?" Boyle asked still standing beside the situation table in the centre of the room.

"It's one of the last models of the Heracles-class Gunship." Will Stonagel said looking over from the weapons control console "Thirteen heavy anti-ship cannons facing forwards and into the broadsides a further three lighter cannons covering the rear sides. Multiple smaller weapons we're a lot smaller but we could probably put out a flak field as thick as most Battlestars." He said "they've also added a hanger to the rear of the ship, these things weren't built with them originally, it won't hold all our fighters but it's a start."

Boyle nodded and reached for the ship's personal announce system "This is Boyle, Chara and other hanger specialists prepare to receive our small craft at the rear of the ship." He said as the Gunship rose into space. "Boyle to fighters, we're going to open the rear hanger bay which will house some of your craft, other fighters will need to mag-clamp onto the hull and their pilots space walk into the ship via airlocks." He explained to the fighter craft which had formed a formation around them now that the Cylons had abandoned their pursuit for now.

Over the next hour the Hunter, the two non-jumpable Raptors and the military shuttle had docked in the hanger while the remaining seven Vipers had docked on the outside of the hull, three craft had been lost in the skies around Picon while twenty-seven more people had been lost getting to the ship. "Jump us to the asteroid" Boyle ordered and in an instant the ship was gone appearing near their base.

"DRADIS contact, we're being challenged it's the Agosta and Caerphilly, they're in for a surprise." Jon Kamen said smirking as he looked back at his CO who was reaching for the microphone.

"Massena to Agosta, we're friendly." Boyle said

"You've changed" came the response from the CO of the Agosta who recognised Boyle's voice.

"Call us the Massena II, we'll be alright for now."


	6. Six - Minos

Minos

Survivor count: 3,804

The Massena II was too big to fit inside the asteroid which was occupied by the majority of the surviving colonials as such the ship and a dozen Vipers orbited the facility with the crew learning the new capabilities of the ship. Colonel Matthew Boyle and his command staff headed to the asteroid onboard the military shuttle salvaged at Picon.

"The Massena II has significantly superior capabilities compared to my old ship with her we'll have the firepower to protect all of our ships." Boyle said looking at the other eight captains who looked pleased at the news the Massena had been a military transport ship once upon a time his crew had added to her capabilities but she was still a transport. The Massena II was a Heracles-class Gunship and despite being old she was a true military craft and far more capable than any transport. "Unfortunately, with those capabilities we will need significantly more personnel to crew the vessel efficiently."

"How many more crew will the ship require?" Catalina Pena asked

"Approximately another nine hundred" Boyle said those around the room looked surprised. "I do not want to draft crewmen but if this fleet is to be protected then it needs those crewmen."

"We'll take some crew from our other Warships and the rest we will make up with the civilian craft that should bring your ship up to speed." Pena responded

"Thank you." Boyle said "the Massena II will need some work to fit Viper craft instead of the Hunter and the Raptors those craft will be needed on another ship."

"We've already began conversion work on one of the freighters to act as an auxiliary freighter. With Vipers it won't be easy but with Raptors and your Hunter it may be easier." Pena explained "while you were gone, we were able to bring in two additional freighters which can house over a thousand souls between them. We've still got more than eight hundred people onboard the Kortenaer who will need places to stay in the long run."

"We'll continue to search for more ships, we've still got three quarters of the colonies to look out for more ships." Boyle said "while the Massena is down for crew training, we'll continue this search with Raptors."

Elsewhere near Caprica a Raptor carrying Ellen "Saladin" Shelton and Alfred "Luhu" Priyanka jumped into the empty space between planets. "Jamming online" Luhu said a moment later from the rear compartment "nothing in the local area."

"But plenty in orbit around Caprica" Saladin replied looking at her own screens both crew on the small Raptor had feeds to the main sensor array allowing one crewman to control the ship at a push. "I count three Baseships around the planet from there they can probably cover Gemenon as well. We'll give it plenty space."

"Yeah a good idea" Luhu said looking at the screens "scanning Tauron."

"You won't get much from this distance."

"Just getting the lay of the land" Luhu replied smirking in his sealed suit. "Nothing over Tauron, weird readings from Minos." He said

"Let's go, spin-up the FTL" Saladin said moments later. After a few seconds the FTL spun-up and the Raptor disappeared in a flash reappearing moments later over the colony world of Tauron. "Oh my Gods…" she said looking at the screens and readings below them the world of Tauron burned from the nuclear weapons that had been dropped on it from orbit.

"We're not going there" Saladin replied "Minos is still showing some sort of power."

"There are mining complexes on Minos it could be survivors."

"Bringing us in closer" she said moving the Raptor forwards towards the small moon.

"DRADIS contact! We've got raiders over the moon" Luhu said from the back of the room "two raiders on a standard patrol pattern."

"Any suggestion they've seen us?"

"Not yet" Luhu said "scanning the moon, we've got a domed settlement that looks like it still has power." He said as the two Cylon raiders flew over the settlement "they didn't even bat an eye" he said "it's like they're guarding it."

"Or keeping whoever is in there inside." Saladin said glancing over her shoulder "we don't want to be seen today. Maintain full ECM, Luhu, jump us back to the asteroid as soon as we're able."

Major Patrick Sinclair was in the Massena II's hanger bay overseeing his troops load equipment into two Raptors when Colonel Boyle walked over to see him. "Major, how are you doing?"

"I've got two Raptors full of marines ready to go on your say, Colonel" he replied Sinclair was career military but accepted Matthew Boyle's command.

"You think you can get in without Viper cover?" Boyle asked Sinclair nodded "then you have a go, Major, good luck."

"Thanks Colonel, hopefully we don't need it."

Soon after it the two Raptors jumped back to Tauron arriving in the space near where the first Raptor had jumped in. Like before there were no raiders near the world of Tauron but there were Raiders over the world of Minos. The two Raptors remained silent as the raiders patrolled heading around the moon out of sensor range the two craft powered up and headed towards the moon's surface landing on its potmarked surface. The Raptors immediately shut down on the surface to remain hidden from the Cylons while the twelve marines including Major Patrick Sinclair sneaked across the surface to one of the cities airlocks.

Using colonial military override codes, the marines are able to enter the facility. Inside the settlement was in its night cycle and the lights across the small town were dimmed placing shadows over the buildings. Marines liked shadows they lived in them and could hurt their enemies from them. Moving around the facility they saw exactly what they thought they would see Cylon Centurions marching down the streets maintaining a curfew the Centurions had their weapons folded away knowing they were in control of the streets without them their single red eye constantly scanning. The marines allowed them to pass knowing that killing one or two Centurions would not make a difference.

"Look" one of the marines said pointing at a pair of Centurions standing guard near one of the main administrative buildings from the building a beautiful tall blond woman with curly hair and a tight white dress walked down the main steps of the building past the two tall metal centurions.

"Photos" Sinclair ordered moments later two other humans walked up to the Centurions and the blonde female "get them all." He ordered the marines nodded and took still images of the humans and the Centurions standing together as equals.

Behind them several boxes were knocked over by one of the marines stumbling around in the shadows. That was enough for one of the patrolling Centurions which turned on the spot its weapons folding out of its arms and immediately it opened fire on the area the marines were hiding killing the marine. The counter fire from the marines cut the metal giant down smashing its armour and destroying its insides.

From the administrative building the two other Centurions began to close on them firing as they came. "Take them out the collaborators too!" Sinclair commanded he ordered as the marines turned their weapons on the other centurions and the humans that had been with them. The Centurion weapons fire killed another of Sinclair's marines but quickly both metal soldiers and the three humans were down.

From beyond Sinclair could hear the metal thumping of incoming Centurions. "Back to the airlocks now!" Sinclair ordered. What followed were several minutes of movement, weapons fire and counter fire as the marines and Centurions fought through the Minos settlement's streets heading for the airlocks. Each time the marines took down one of the enemy machines another would arrive to fill its space but each time one of the marines was shot and killed there was no-one to replace them. Over the space of several streets another five of the marines were shot and killed defending the others against attacks from the incoming Cylons.

Reaching the airlocks Sinclair stood guard as one of the marines worked on the door mechanism releasing it allowing them to escape. As they began to leave the facility Sinclair saw more Centurions coming knowing his men would be killed if he didn't stop Patrick Sinclair sealed the marines in the airlock and turned and faced down against several Centurions firing two separate rifles at the Cylons keeping them at bay behind him he saw the light go green indicating his men were clear of the airlock just as a bullet ripped into his shoulder throwing him to the ground defenceless to the incoming Cylons.

"STOP!" A female voice shouted as the Centurions levelled their weapons at him moments later, she appeared in his field of view she was identical to the female the marines had killed outside the administrative building only now she wore a blue pant suit with lots of skin showing under the jacket. She was beautiful but she should also be very dead he'd seen her take three bullets in the chest. "You're going to tell us all we need to know about where you came from and why you came here."

Outside the facility the four marines who escaped moved quickly to the two Raptors and powered them back up. As they rose from the moon crater, they had landed in, two Cylon Raiders appeared from around the moon. With their FTL still charging the two Raptors each fired a pair of anti-ship missiles at the incoming Cylon Raiders as a deterrent to try and keep them at bay. The Cylon Raiders attempted to avoid the missiles but in a head to head pass they had no time to avoid the missiles and both were hit and destroyed. Behind them more Cylon Raiders were approaching but now the FTL drives were charged and the Raptors were able to jump away.


	7. Seven - Rescue

Rescue

Survivor count: 3,797

Patrick Sinclair ached in so many ways he was sat tied to a chair in a room with little features other than a glass roof. "Where is your base Captain Boyle?" The blonde female asked when Sinclair didn't speak the other man punched him. Sinclair had been shocked when he'd seen the man who was identical to the man he knew as Leoben was one of the interrogators. He'd kept enough composure to lie to them about his identity giving the name of Captain Matthew Boyle stating his ship was the Raptor they had come in and he and his men were simply looking for food that hadn't gone well but at least they'd believed him when he said his name was Boyle now each time they said it, it was a small victory for him each time they said the name.

"We don't have a base you blew our civilisation to pieces!" Sinclair snapped back "we're looking for somewhere we'll safe from you machines" he snarled "you took away my family, my entire world, end my frakking life why don't you?"

"We don't want to cause you anymore suffering" the blonde said "but we do need to know more about your people." She said this caused Sinclair to laugh.

"Then you shouldn't have nuked us into oblivion for years we came to the Armistice Station and you didn't show us. They used to broadcast the arrival of our people on the main square's screens yet still no interest from the Cylons." Sinclair snarled "for forty years we waited for you to honour the peace we'd both agreed to. Forty frakking years."

"You continued your military development!" Leoben character said "You continued to probe our territory how were we to know what your intentions were." He said this was something that Sinclair hadn't known but he kept that to himself anything he learned could help him in the future if he got away.

"Can you blame us? You stopped speaking to us right after the war. Everything went silent we couldn't sit and wait for you to return with twice the numbers and wipe us out. We built up a military force out of fear of you machines." He said angrily "and fear we should have because you never gave up on the frakking war, you were among us the whole time and we didn't know it." He said. "Just like the first war all you could think about was wiping us out."

"We wished to control your number curb your ambitions" the blonde began.

"Frak you" Sinclair snapped followed by Leoben punching him as Sinclair's head recoiled above them there were several flashes of light causing him to laugh. "I'll tell you a secret" he said looking at the blonde woman who was looking up as well. "My name isn't Boyle, that frakker just arrived and now you're in trouble."

In space the fleet's Manticore, the Caerphilly, Adamant, the Agosta, and the modified freighter all jumped into the area near Minos. In the Caerphilly's command deck Colonel Matthew Boyle glanced at Captain Raymie Steele "message to Agosta and Dagmar to deploy auxiliary craft. Agosta and Hunter are to cover Dagmar and our Raptors all Vipers on us." He commanded the ship's captain who nodded from the fleet's ships twenty Vipers, six Raptors and the Hunter all launched from the ships the Raptors and Hunter diving towards the colony below.

The Raptors landed all around the facility below deploying nearly two dozen heavily armed marines while the Hunter destroyed the patrolling Cylon Raiders. Inside the facility the marines moved rapidly taking out Centurions wherever they encountered them civilians hid trying to avoid the crossfire between the Colonial Marines and the Cylons.

With all hell breaking loose outside the camp the blonde looked at Leoben who immediately pulled a sidearm "your friends might be here but you won't live to see them." He said aiming it at Sinclair's head Sinclair closed his eyes and made peace with the Gods waiting for the impact.

"No!" The blonde shouted knocking the weapon away sending the bullet into the wall "not now, we need to leave before the scuttling charges go off."

"Why?" Leoben asked angrily "We will be born again. He will be dead with a bullet."

"Not now" she repeated "we need to evacuate" the blonde stated turning towards the door Leoben aimed the weapon at Sinclair obviously thinking of firing but instead stopped himself and the two followed the blonde out leaving Sinclair tied to the chair. Outside the room the sound of weapons fire and movement continued for several minutes before two heavily armoured and armed soldiers charged inside.

"Colonial!" Sinclair shouted alerting them "Major Patrick Sinclair, Colonial Fleet!"

"Good to see you are alive, sir" Lieutenant Julian Leonard said pulling down his mask. "It's time to get you out of here." He said quickly cutting Sinclair loose of the bonds that held him onto the chair

"You're a sight for sore eyes" Sinclair replied "what's our status?"

"Fleet ships in orbit, we're clearing out Cylons, according to sensors there's an increasing power load from the reactors."

"I heard them talk of scuttling charges" Sinclair said "we need to get as many of the people here as we can onto the civilian ships that are docked beside the dome."

"If the reactors are going up, we need to get the hell out of here!"

"Negative, we're going to get people onto those ships. Get a team down to the reactors I want a timeframe on what's going on!" Sinclair snapped "give me a wireless."

Onboard the Caerphilly Boyle listened to Sinclair's voice and while worried about the reactors he knew what the man planned. "Understood we'll keep guard as long as we can Caerphilly Actual out." He said turning to Captain Steele "pass to our fighters when the two freighters lift off the ground, they're on our side. Sinclair is trying to save a world."

Several minutes past and the two ships were soon detected rising from the ground just as a Baseship jumped into the area and began to launch small craft. "Baseship detected incoming raiders and missiles!" One of the crew called out from behind the Caerphilly the Agosta and the Hunter began to fire into space creating a small flak field but almost immediately one of the missiles flew through the barrage and struck the Agosta's upper hull leaving a crater in its hull.

"She can't take many of those" Boyle said watching the small carrier's course change slightly under the hit. "Have them continue to fire until the Raptors and those freighters are ready to jump. Take us at that Baseship." He commanded the Captain looked shocked at his idea.

"Sir, we can't go toe to toe with them" Steele warned him.

"No, but we've a better chance than anyone else, flank speed Captain, forward gunners to target as we go the Vipers are to strike at the enemy raiders." Boyle ordered within moments the Corvette shot forwards with the Vipers surrounding it they'd be outgunned and the fighters outnumbered but there was nothing else they could do. From the Baseship dozens of Raiders charged towards the Colonial Warship along with several capital missiles two of which slammed into the Caerphilly slamming into the vessel's upper armour blowing open a hull section sending two crewmen to their deaths in space. On the front of the Corvette the ship's forward guns opened up sending weapons fire directly at the Baseship causing damage to one of its upper "arms." As the small ship approached the Baseship raiders flew down either side of the craft striking it with their fighter weapons cutting into either side of the ship despite the efforts of the Vipers which were outnumbered three to one.

The ship rocked heavily under another missile strike which blew a hole in the port side of the ship knocking Boyle off his feet scrambling back to his feet he looked at the screen. "Captain, send them a volley of topedoes!" He commanded

"Sir, we only have a volley!" Steele said

"Better now than never, send them now before we can't!" Boyle snapped as the Caerphilly rocked heavily under another hit from the front of the Corvette under the ship's hull ten high explosive torpedoes launched from the ship firing in a spiral pattern towards the Baseship. Unguided the torpedoes struck out rapidly towards the enemy craft as Cylon Raiders chased after them trying to shoot them down only six made it to their target ripping into the Baseship and tearing through the armour of the ship obliterating it, the Baseship's lack of point defence cost the ship.

"The fleet reports they are ready to jump!"

"Order the remaining Vipers to withdraw to their carriers and have the Hunter dock!" Boyle commanded as Cylon raiders continued to attack the corvette their bullets penetrating several sections cutting through bulkheads and crewmen.

"We lose our screen we're dead!" Steele warned him knowing that his ship could only take so much damage already the Raiders were identifying weak points.

"The fleet needs those fighters" he said in response "send them home, turn us towards the Agosta their weapons can help defend us."

"Agosta is taking hits as well" Steele noted seeing the Adamant was taking as many Raider strafing runs as the Caerphilly although the Cylons lacked the capital armament to finish the Colonials off quickly they still had plenty of weapons in the area. Suddenly out of nowhere the Massena II flashed into the space beside the Caerphilly the massive Gunship dwarfing the Corvette and turning the tables on the Cylons immediately as it unleashed a flak barrage that eliminated the majority of the raiders. The Heracles' guns continued to fire taking out more craft as the ship rapidly flipped end over end and accelerated quickly rolling in space past the Agosta and freighters again unleashing more flak fire that tore into the remaining raiders. "That's some piloting" Steele remarked Colonel Boyle looked over at him and smiled in response.

"Yes, it is, Captain, take us home to the asteroid." He said before realising what he had said it was an uninhabitable rock in space but it was all they had and they had to make the most of it while they could. With the Massena II covering their retreat the Caerphilly, Agosta, the Modified Freighter and the two newly acquired craft from Minos were all able to make orderly retreats before the Gunship also followed them escaping before more Cylon capital craft arrived.


	8. Eight - Reckoning

Eight - Reckoning

Survivor count: 4,381

As an arms dealer Leoben had been given a job cleaning and preparing small arms weapons for the passengers and crew Kortenaer. It wasn't the most tasking work but it kept him busy and kept him near a supply of weapons, should he need them, given the successes these Colonials had been having he may just need them.

Suddenly without warning several marines in full body armour charged in brandishing assault rifles aiming them at Leoben. "Morning lads, how can I help you?" He asked looking at them and at the weapons on the table beside him. Behind the marines another Leoben walked in his hands bound behind him.

"Sorry cousin, this game is up…" he said glancing at the marines and more that had entered behind them.

"Well when the game is up you know what you do" the first Leoben said striking out at the closest marine knocking him down while grabbing the weapon. He turned bringing the weapon up but as he did the remaining three marines pulled the trigger on their weapons immediately killing Leoben.

"What a waste" the captive Leoben said as the marines turned towards him "I'm not the fighting type boys. Interrogation yes but not fighting, I'll cooperate and help you see the fight." He said intent on playing the long game with the Colonials.

On board the Massena II Matthew Boyle welcomed the other captains to the ship as they planned their next move despite his injuries Patrick Sinclair joined them. "Welcome onboard all of you" Boyle said looking around the meeting room at the nine other Captains and Sinclair. "Now we need to decide our next move now that we know we've had a spy here on the asteroid. We don't know what he fed back to the Cylons but we have to think our time here is going to be limited." He said referring to Leoben, they had no idea if there were more of his kind here already pictures of the humans who had helped the Cylons were being passed across the ships.

"We have ships in need of significant repairs" Captain Raymie Steele said first his Caerphilly had taken heavy damage rescuing Sinclair and the civilians from Minos the Agosta was less damaged but still would struggle in future conflicts.

"Agreed and Captain Pena's people have already begun repairs to critical systems but extensive structural repairs will be more difficult. We will do what we can."

"Colonel Boyle, if I may?" The commander of the Tylium Refuelling ship that they had liberated from Minos asked. He was at least ten years Matthew Boyle's senior with greying hair and wore a utilitarian civilian uniform which was brown in colour with a red coloured t-shirt underneath.

"Go ahead, Captain Strattus" Boyle said remembering the man's name.

"Our ship has supplies that could help with repairs here on the asteroid and while in deep space you saved us from Minos my people will help you willingly. We would also like to request the permission of Major Sinclair to rename our vessel and the Tylium Mining vessel after two of the marines who died saving us."

"It would be an honour" Sinclair said his face was bruised and he looked terrible but he was still of right mind. "I will provide you with the names of the last two marines who died on Minos."

"Thank you" Strattus said turning back to Colonel Boyle "I have one further request." Boyle nodded his agreement. "Colonel, your people have sacrificed for the good of the people in this room and on the ships out there. If we are to leave the asteroid below and become a fleet we will need a fleet commander. I vote for you to fill that roll is there a second?" He asked glancing around seven others raised their hands in support including Major Sinclair "that confirms it, Commander."

"I'm not in this for the glory or station."

"Don't worry we won't be increasing your pay" Strattus said winking "just keep doing what you're doing."

"Why do we have to leave? This asteroid could defend us from significant enemy weapons fire."

"But it would only take a few missiles to seal the entrance to the cave our ships are in." Boyle pointed out "if the Cylons know where we are then we cannot remain here. Major Sinclair is going to interrogate our Cylon collaborator and see if he can find any more information."

Sometime later Major Patrick Sinclair sat in a room with Leoben. "Interesting how things turn around" he said looking at the man who beat him. Between them was a table with pictures of each of the collaborators who had helped the Cylons.

"Is this when you beat me like I beat you?" Leoben asked looking at him "all of this has happened before Major and it will happen again."

"No, it will not happen again, I've no intention in beating you." Sinclair said "if you do not want to speak to me then you don't have to." He said "fortunately, I have a feeling that you want to speak."

"I do?"

"Yes" Sinclair said "why did you and your brother betray your people and help the Cylons in their attacks." He asked this caused Leoben to smile.

"You're right Major, I do wish to speak to you, I'm not human nor was my brother. We are Cylons we were born and bred as Cylons as were the others of my kind." He said seeing that he had Sinclair captivated "when the last war ended the Cylons dedicated themselves to perfecting their kind. They improved the weapons they had and they improved themselves, we are the product of those endevours." He said leaning forwards tapping each "all Cylons, there are twelve of us, we're everywhere."

"And you expect me to just believe you?"

"Of course, not but your doctors I am sure will be able to tell the difference between the Leoben you killed and a regular human. Different materials in our make up." He said sitting back "but the same desires and the same impulses which led to our attack on the colonies." He said he saw Leoben's speciesism "check his belongings he'll have a small disk-shaped item which he used as a communications device. It's not Colonial technology it'll stand out."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sinclair asked "you know you're betraying your own people."

"Not really I'm enlightening you before you are destroyed. There's another trick we Cylons have developed." He said with a smirk "when one of us dies we download into another body identical to this one with all the memories we had when we died." He explained "very soon the Cylons will be here and you'll all die and I will be reborn."

With Leoben's information in hand the security teams quickly found the device he had mentioned and the doctor's confirmed there were genetic differences between the Leoben corpse and a human the speed of the evacuation was increased with the remaining people who were berthed on the Kortenaer were crammed into the remaining ships of the fleet with all ships taking on civilians. Above the asteroid the Massena orbited waiting guarding against the threat they all expected was coming.

As the ships began to rise three Baseships jumped in above the asteroid and began raining down missiles at the Massena and the asteroid. The Heracles-class Gunship began to put up a flak barrage while the Vipers, Raptors and Hunter engaged the incoming Cylon Raiders. The Colonial pilots engaged the Cylons in open combat despite being outnumbered significantly.

"Keep us between the Baseships and our ships, the fighters, Raptors and Hunter need to stay in our shadow and engage Raiders who are trying to break through to the fleet. Order Caerphilly and Agosta to remain with the other ships and offer close protection." Boyle commanded the Massena was able to defend against the majority of the missiles but with additional raiders in the area there was too much for the Massena alone. Around the ship enemy Raiders attacked while Vipers and Raptors fought off the craft, they were heavily outnumbered in a moment three Vipers were destroyed by the Cylons as two capital missiles from the Cylon vessels flew past the Massena and slammed into the upper hull of the Agosta blowing open sections of the hull sending several members of the crew to their deaths in space.

The Massena II rocked heavily as two missiles struck the ship impacting on the ship's armour. Matthew Boyle stood at the situation desk in the centre of the room looking at the DRADIS console's above. "Keep up flak barrage on all secondary turrets, dorsal anti-capital turrets to Basestar target 3, ventral turrets on Basestar 2." He said looking over at Will Stonagal his new XO.

"Yes sir" he said turning towards the weapons techs "Split targets by dorsal and ventral gunners, dorsal guns to target Basestar 3, Ventral to target DRADIS target 2. Continue to fire flak barrage and protect the fleet." He commanded the main turrets that lined the top of the hull turned tracking the furthest right while the turrets along the bottom of the ship turned to the central vessel. "You know it won't be enough to take them out we're out of effective range."

"I know" Boyle said looking at the screens out of the weapons available the only way they would take out the baseships would be to close on target and to shred the vessels unfortunately without the flak barrage the fleet ships behind them would die. The Massena shook heavily as another hit struck the gunship they couldn't leave the fleet undefended. "We need a distraction" he said looking at the Hunter and its supporting Raptors thinking "contact the Hunter, I want them and their escort to…"

"DRADIS contact!" Victoria Kryvych shouted out from the far side of the CIC as more missiles struck the Massena II. Behind the group another contact was detected rising from the asteroid. Behind the small fleet the Kortenaer pushed its way out of the asteroid the port side of it's hull breaking through the surface of the rock as it rose up. The Atlas-class Carrier quickly turned on space and fired its main thrusters orientating towards the Cylon Basestars moments later the forward guns on the Atlas opened fire on the third Basestar.

"Give me contact" Boyle called out grabbing the microphone from the central DRADIS screen "Massena Actual to Kortenaer."

"Kortenaer Actual… go ahead" Captain Catalina Pena responded her transmission broken as the Kortenaer was pounded by capital missiles from the Basestars unlike the other Colonial ship the carrier was accelerating towards its targets.

"What are you doing Captain?" Boyle asked over the impact of several more missiles.

"Buying you time to escape" Pena answered "we've got a pair of Raptors onboard, Commander, we'll be alright." She said as the distance closed between the Kortenaer and the Cylon ships more missiles turned towards the charging carrier missiles struck the front, top and port side of the ship one missile arced around the side of the Kortenaer and slammed into the side of the ship blowing through the ship's hanger. "So much for those Raptors" Pena said "don't worry about us, Commander, take care of those people." She said cutting the transmission as more missiles struck the carrier the Atlas' own guns returned fire as it came but more and more of the Cylon's attention was on the ship allowing the Massena to get more hits in against its own targets.

"As soon as the fleet's ready to jump turn us towards the Baseships and give them our full attention." Boyle ordered "we'll jump out as soon as we secure the survivors from the Kortenaer." He said as the Caerphilly jumped out of the area followed quickly by two of the freighters. As the fleet cleared the area however the Kortenaer continued to take damage from Cylon missile strikes and Raider strafing runs.

"Agosta is recalling fighters and spooling FTL."

"Do the same call what's left of ours inside, we'll take those from Dagmar as well, have Hunter and non-jump capable Raptors to land as well." He ordered thinking of the freighter that had carried fighters previously without landing bays the pilots needed to go EVA to board Dagmar and during a battle that wasn't a great idea. As Vipers began to land on the two carriers the remaining freighters including the Tylium Refinery and refuelling ships which jumped out. "Bring us around towards the Cylon ships we need to cover the Kortenaer's evacuation." He said

"It's too late" Stonagal callout out on the DRADIS screen the indicator for the Kortenaer winked out as the ship began to break up under the continuous pounding from the three Baseships. Each of the Cylon ships showed signs that they had been in a fight but not enough to take them out of battle with minimal crewmen onboard the carrier had no chance against their massed firepower.

"Gods look down on the crew of the Kortenaer, we appreciate their sacrifice, jump the ship. Get us out of here." Boyle commanded a few moments later the Heracles jumped clear of the area heading to join the remaining fleet ships.


	9. Nine - Lucky 9

Nine - Lucky 9

Survivor Count: 950

The Janus class Postal Cruiser had been on the run since the beginning and end of the Second Cylon War after being sent to rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica to deliver more supplies for the museum that the ship would be central to following the vessel's decommissioning. Originally built before the First Cylon War the ship had been modified into a Special Delivery Transport intended to serve the Colonial Government's Delivery Service under the designation Postal Cruiser 9 it was now known to the crew as the Lucky 9. Far from it's sleek pointed hull had been modified with four large cargo bays placed between the forward hull and the large aft engine section providing the vessel with a large capacity cargo hold. Over its many years of service various commanders had refurbished the ships weapons turrets giving the ship some defensive firepower capable of dealing with pirates or opportunists.

The Galactica was not at the rendezvous point instead they found destroyed Viper Mk II craft and destroyed Cylon fighters without any idea where the Galactica had gone. While there the ship had been attacked by a pair of Cylon Raiders that the Lucky 9 assumed was looking for the Galactica after surviving some strafing attacks and missile strikes the crew chose to run. The Lucky 9 fled through Helios Alpha system and was now near one of the planetoids that resided between Helios Alpha and Gamma the ship was waiting for its FTL to charge hoping to remain hidden from the Cylons.

On the vessel's command deck Captain Amelie Brand looked at the jump clock praying to the Gods it would go faster. "Captain, that's the missiles, torpedoes and drones loaded into launchers One through Three it won't be enough to hold off a concentrated Cylon attack but it'll give us something. Bad news is that the long-range communications suite is completely destroyed." Lieutenant Levison Wood her executive officer reported as he approached the main command deck standing in the rear beside Brand the Janus command area was similar to that of the smaller Manticore compact and more like an enlarged transport aircraft's cockpit than a military command deck.

"Understood Lieutenant, how far can we communicate?"

"Inter system and local area only."

"Great now we just need a little luck and for the jump clock to tick faster." She said glancing at it again the clock red sixteen minutes and counting.

"The Cylons can't be everywhere." Wood suggested their first attacks had been overwhelming for the Colonies taking them by surprise with numbers and a first strike now with Colonial elements fighting back they had to be feeling the strain of the occupation Colonial fleet was a massive force.

"We only need them to be here." She said after a few moments "are the Sweepers prepared?"

"Prepared and crewed by some of the bravest men and women we have." He confirmed as part of their cargo the Lucky 9 had been carrying four Mark V Sweeper small craft which were going into the Galactica's museum. Late war models of the craft they were armed with air-to-air missiles, chaff and aft kinetic energy weapons they would had been rearmed and fuelled from the Lucky 9's cargo bay and would be able to give the ship some sort of screen.

"Hopefully we won't need them" Brand said the ship also had almost two Vipers onboard but they had no way to launch them and no pilots if they did.

"DRAIDIS contact!" One of the crewmen called out "three… five… nine signatures" the young woman said looking over at Amelie Brand "eight Cylon Raiders and one bigger one designating Heavy Raider."

"Understood" the Captain said "launch Sweepers bring our nose around to face them and slightly up I want out ventral turrets to all be able to fire at once on target." She said the majority of the Lucky 9's firepower was in five ventral turrets slung under the hull with two above even in the ship's prime the majority of its firepower was below the hull. "Hold fire, until I give the word."

The Janus turned in space facing the incoming Cylon threat its nose pulling up slightly further as the four Sweepers launched from the shuttle bay amidships. The Janus was not designed to carry small craft instead relying on its speed and launched weapons as firepower.

"Shame they weren't putting nukes into that museum this would be a short fight. Should we use missiles?" Wood asked

"Negative, we're keeping those for a tougher fight." Brand said watching the Cylons close on her ship and watching the clock tick down. "Open fire!" She barked the command the ship's weapons firing nearly as one sending a concentrated burst of fire into the Cylon formation. The weapons fire cut down four of the Raiders and crippled the Heavy Raider sending it into a death spiral which was taking it towards the Lucky 9. As it approached the ship two Sweepers arced around the Cruiser's hull and a pair of air-to-air missiles finished off the ship behind the two craft two of the remaining Cylon Raiders dived after them their rear weapons engaging.

Brand watched the fight unfold from the command deck as rapidly the remaining four Raiders were cut down by the Lucky 9's gunners and the Sweepers. "Well done people, recover small craft" she said looking at the screens "helm, once the Sweepers are onboard jump us to Nodra if there's no Cylon presence I want you to find us a hole we can hide in." Brand caught Wood's glance "we need somewhere to catch our bearings Nodra's out of the way enough that I'm hoping it won't be high on the Cylon's hit list."

"You think Wilkes is still down there?" Wood asked naming a smuggler that was known to the crew and known personally by the Captain.

"We're not that lucky." She said as the Lucky 9 recovered its last Sweeper and jumped out of the system.

In the Helios Gamma system, they had emerged close to the moon of Nodra near Ophion. Nodra was less than 10km wide at its largest point. "Bring us down into that crater and prepare to go to our low power level." Brand ordered the Lucky 9 dropped quickly towards the tiny moon which still dwarfed the Postal Cruiser. "Lieutenant, I want a damage control assessment of the ship and a full report from the cargo bays on their status." She said turning to her XO "things might have moved about in our manoeuvring I want them stowed away we don't need to cause ourselves more damage if we have to move at speed again." Levison Wood nodded and quickly left the CIC.

"Weapons, I want you to prepare a drone and put it into orbit." She said turning to another crewmen "once it's there I want you to try and contact Justin Wilkes he should still be residing somewhere on Nodra." She said looking at the DRADIS screen as the Lucky 9 lowered into one of the largest craters on Nodra.

"Firing grapples" one of the crewmen called out as the ship got closer to the surface grapples on the lower part of the hull fired burrowing into the surface, they were designed to bring the ship into close docking with large Colonial stations but the grapples worked just as well on rocky surface. Before the ship got too close to the surface a drone fired from the underside of the ship and rocketed into orbit around the rock.

"Good orbit on drone"

"Thanks Brooke" Amelia Brand responded looking at the crewmen at weapons she has short dark hair and still wore her Colonial Postal Service Navy Overalls like many other crewmen, they'd all need to figure out who they were with their former lives gone. Now that the ship was attached to Nodra she'd have to watch her crew's reactions to the aftermath of the attack. "Give me wireless contact with the drone."

"You're on, Captain, it might be a bit choppy because of our damaged transceiver."

"Wilkes, you old frakker, you still hiding on this rock." Brand said immediately bringing shocked looks from the other crewmen around the command deck Brand smiled.

"Amy Brand is that you?" Came a response shortly afterwards.

"Can the drone track him down?" Brand asked her crew before replying she received a nod from the crew before she continued to speak. "Afternoon, you old pirate."

"I'm a smuggler, not a pirate, you know that. How did you escape the Toasters?"

"Luck and a bit of skill" Brand said glancing around the CIC seeing a crewmen with an answer "Chaim, you got something?"

"He's about eight kilometres away from us and several hundred feet below us." Allan Chaim answered from his station.

"I assume your little bunker kept you safe?" She asked letting him know they'd tracked him down.

"The Cylons have given us a wide berth so far." Wilkes replied "and I've a few surprises waiting for them if they do decide to show up."

"Surprises come in many forms; I think we should meet in person Wilkes."

"Agreed, I'll send you landing coordinates, that Cruiser won't fit though." He said letting her know that he knew what she had.

"I'll take something smaller seen you soon, Justin." She said ending the communications. Allan pipe his coordinates down to the launch bay I'll take one of the Sweepers over to see them and see what they have." She said turning to the exit door as Allan Chaim rose from his station catching her attention.

"Do you think you can trust these people Boss?"

"Not much choice unfortunately" Brand relied "but if it makes you feel any better, I know that old frakker better than I know some of my own family." She said for a moment forgetting what the Cylons had done before remembering she quickly suppressed her emotions and gave Chaim and the others a weak smile "we can trust him, he's a crook but he's an honest one. When Lieutenant Wood returns inform him of my whereabouts" she said "until then you're in charge Chaim, try not to leave without me." She asked him before leaving the command deck.

Soon afterwards one of the Sweepers rose from the crater that the Lucky 9 had landed in keeping low to the surface of the moon the Sweeper flew around the craters and boulders that littered Nodra's surface. Unlike the squat Raptors modern military vessels used the Sweepers were longer more like an atmosphere-based aircraft in the cabin Amelie Brand and the two-armed postal workers who had accompanied her as an escort sat comfortably while the four crewmen of the Sweeper did their work. The ship had been designed almost like a system monitor vessel capable of operating for days on end without support. While the ships assigned to the Lucky 9 didn't have the supplies for such a duty it was nice to know they had that capability should she need them to do it. The Sweeper skimmed the surface until reaching a deep crevasse turning its nose to face the opposite direction the crew expertly cut the ship's speed before slowly beginning to lower the craft into the cavern. Rising from her chair Amelie Brand was more than a little shocked to see two small freighters parked inside the moon and what appeared to be an old mining station which looked like it had been built directly into the surface of the moon.

A large mouth like opening began to open in front of them allowing the Sweeper to enter as it did the small ship flew over eight pristine looking Viper Mk VII, 2 Assault Raptors, several regular Raptors, several non-FTL shuttles and a larger craft three times the size of a Colonial Raptor it had a thin main fuselage with two bulbous turrets either side of the forward hull and another at the rear between the twin engine nacelles. "Quite a fleet" Amelia Brand noted looking down at the ships seeing a landing zone as behind them the doors closed and the bay began to re-pressurize. From an airlock a small detachment entered the airlock Amelia Brand turned away from the cockpit and stepped towards the hatch to exit the Sweeper opening the door which opened towards the roof allowing her to leave.

Stepping out of the craft she stepped down onto the landing pad with the armed guards following her. "Wilkes good to see you" she said walking up to the older man "quite a fleet you've built for yourself." She said embracing him in a hug.

"It's been a while; how did you end up in charge of a Post ship? And how did you avoid the Cylons?" He asked as she pulled away.

"I had to find a normal life" she said shrugging slightly seeing Wilkes face "you know one that was more legal." She said raising her eyebrows to emphasize her point "we've fought the Cylons a couple of times."

"How did they not infect your systems?" Wilkes asked he saw Brand's confusion "when the Cylons attacked they didn't just attack with overwhelming force they also invaded the Colonial Fleet's computer systems shutting down the majority of the modern Colonial fleet destroying them." He said seeing her shock "the only ships that have not been destroyed this way are those that are really old."

"The Lucky is old, probably one of the oldest commissioned ships" Brand admitted "what has the Colonial Government's response been?" She asked Wilkes laughed "what's funny about this?"

"The Government's gone. Galactica's commander took command of the fleet and broadcast on all channels the Battlestar and the civilians with them escaped a Cylon trap at Ragnar. We don't know where they are." Wilkes explained Brand rocked on her heels the Lucky 9 had missed so much while their communication's suite had been destroyed in the initial Cylon encounter.

"What's the response been… what are we doing about it?"

"No-one's doing anything there is no coordinated response or government and no fleet, we're all doing all we can to survive. I've got two hundred people crammed into this rock, normally there's ninety people here but we couldn't leave people down there on those nuked colonies."

"Justin Wilkes humanitarian who'd have thought?" Amelia Brand said staring into space.

"Amy Brand Post-Girl who'd have thought?" Wilkes pushed back snapping Amelia out of her trance for a moment.

"I see you've still got the Hunter?" She said indicating to the heavily armed small craft nearby distracting herself for a moment looking at the ship thinking about their present situation.

"That thing?" He said looking at it smirking "the product of our previous life Amy... there cannot be many of them still flying." He said wistfully remembering their past "The bane of Colonial fleet." He said "we made them pay didn't we…"

"Yes, we did… not as much as some." Brand replied coming back into reality "It's all in the past a nice memento" she said turning back towards him "assuming you don't plan to turn us away, what do we do next?"

"We be the bane of the Cylon Fleet and we make them pay for what they've done." Wilkes replied looking over at Brand "it's time we got our revenge."


	10. Ten - New Finds

Ten – New Finds

Massena fleet

Survivor Count: 4,319

Lieutenant Isabelle Rhodes skimmed over the top of the Massena II in her Viper Mk VII remarking how much like her previous posting, the Galactica, it was the same dark grey colour and covered in point defence turrets and anti-ship turrets. As her fighter approached the rear of the ship, she activated her wireless system "Cassiopeia to Massena LSO, permission to land."

"Permission granted Cassiopeia; you have the ball"

"Received" she said glancing at the other fighter which was passing over the Massena "Sheppard, you follow me in."

"Affirmative" her wingman in the other fighter responded. Cassiopeia nodded and as she approached the rear of the warship, she rotated her Viper in space and brought it down behind the Massena II slowly bringing the vessel forwards into the ship's compact hanger bay. Around the Massena the other ships were arranged around the warship she knew conditions on board those craft were currently not great each ship was overcrowded packed full with survivors. Even now her Commander, Matthew Boyle, was meeting with the other commanders of the fleet.

"…understand me the reason the Massena is currently not carrying civilians is because we are the fleet's primary defence." Boyle said looking around the other Captain's. "Other ships have weapons but when battles come to this fleet we will be at the forefront for the fighting. You elected me to be commander of this fleet now I must make decisions for us all."

"And what decision have you made about our course?" Janus Joon the commander of the Colonial Heavy Transport. "We cannot continue to jump between systems of the colonies in hope that we pick up more survivors, the Cylons will never stop hunting us."

"No, they will not" Boyle admitted "with the Sun Bak and Rhonda Hurst joining the fleet" he said naming the two Tyllium ships that had been named for marines who died on Minos. "We will be able to support ourselves with fuel but we still need facilities to grow additional food, none of our ships have the space required to grow crops."

"And how do you expect to find ships that could have the space for such food production?"

"There is only one place in the system likely to still have ships of this capability. The Ouranus Graveyard inside the asteroid belt. The Cylons will know that old Colonial ships have been sent there for storage they'll have defences ready for us but if we can hold them off long enough, we may be able to salvage the ships we need." Boyle said

"How will you get there and not be detected with the fleet?"

"We won't, we'll be taking a freighter and Raptors to the Graveyard. Massena will remain here with the fleet."

"You cannot hope to survive with a freighter."

"The Cylons didn't leave us with options."

Lucky 9

Survivor Count: 1,150

Elsewhere in the Twelve Colonies the Lucky 9 and the two freighters from Norda charged through Helios Gamma pursued by Cylon raiders at every turn. The support craft Justin Wilkes and his people had assembled was impressive and gave them many options. Amy Brand didn't have a clue what they were going to do with Cylons at every turn but they would do all they could to survive.

"Captain Brand to the bridge!" Came the intercom message Amy Brand ran from her quarters towards the bridge. She ran into the vessel's command deck finding Justin Wilkes standing nearby the centre of the room.

"What have we got?"

"Wreckage" Levison Wood said drawing her attention to the DRADIS screens "it appears to be a group of civilian ships, all destroyed."

"Any sign of the Cylons?" She said scanning the screens.

"Negative" Wood said

"Launch the Sweepers, I want each of the ships scanned for any sign of lifesigns" Brand commanded.

"And scan them for any supplies we can get." Wilkes commanded Brand looked at him "I know it's morbid but those ships could have supplies that we could use and the people on board them don't need the supplies anymore." He suggested Brand thought about it for a moment and nodded her agreement.

For several hours the two Sweepers moved from ship to ship scanning for survivors finding none in the six wrecked vessels. The Lucky 9's crew were able to identify several of the ships by name including the Scylla, the Beth Sell and the Tropos Gardener the other three ships were too badly damaged by Cylon attacks to be identified. From the ships they were able to salvage some cargo, food, water and fuel but most systems were too badly damaged to be of any use including all of the ships FTL systems which appeared to have been completely removed from the ships. As the Lucky 9 and the other two ships slipped away Amy Brand broadcast a message to all three ships.

"In this time of great hardship these souls of the Twelve Colonies are committed to the Gods and Eternal Peace. We each pray to the Gods that they embrace these people and give them life eternal far from where harm can be caused. So say we all." She said cutting the message off "prepare for an FTL jump as soon as we are clear of the wreckage field."

"Where are we going?" Wilkes asked

"We need to find somewhere to hide from the Cylons."

"Norda would have done nicely" Wilkes pointed out "if we could have fit everyone down there." He admitted unfortunately as soon as someone discovered the Lucky 9 the Cylons would also discover those on Norda they needed to find somewhere they'd all fit in.

The Dagmar jumped into the area near the Colonial's ship graveyard deep inside the asteroid belt and immediately the Hunter and four Raptors detached. Onboard the Hunter Commander Matthew Boyle sat in the ship's compact command deck which resembled the forward section of a Raptor. Behind there was a connecting corridor that led to the weapons sections to port starboard and the rear in between there was a shared recreation area where they could rest if the Hunter was on a long deployment though Boyle didn't plan on this one lasting long.

"Boyle to Raptors hold back we're going in first. Dagmar, remain in high orbit." He commanded bringing the Hunter down towards the asteroid below while the freighter and four Raptors remained in position. As the Hunter approached the ground, they could see several of the ships below were damaged or in the process of being broken down. "Someone has been selling parts of these ships right under the Colonial Military's noses." Suddenly weapons fire erupted from the ground impacting on the ship's hull several slammed against the bulbous cockpit of the ship. Boyle threw the controls to the right moving the ship out of the way of the defence fire he didn't need to make the command to fire immediately both side gunnery positions opened fire. "What do we have?"

"Looks like Centurions the Cylons have left behind to guard this place." One of the gunners responded "one down."

"Make that two" the other side gunner said from the rear of the ship the third gunner opened fire taking out another of the Centurions. In front of the Hunter Boyle saw four more Centurions setting up on one of the wrecked Colonial ships flicking a couple of switches in the cockpit released two missiles from the underside of the Hunter. As soon as the missiles were clear of the ship their engines ignited and flew straight to target taking out the four Centurions.

"That'll do nicely" Boyle said seeing a target that would fit their purpose "Raptor One and Two target is Grid 42." He said seeing the military freighter sitting the ship looked like it had some of its armour removed but was still intact. "Exercise extreme caution we're still mopping up the Centurions." He commanded continuing to move the Hunter over the graveyard searching for another ship. One either side of the ship and to the rear the gunners continued to fire down on the on the Cylon guards.

"They must have communication with the other Cylons." His co-pilot said

"Agreed" Boyle said seeing the communication circuit from the Dagmar was active.

"Dagmar, go ahead."

"Commander, we have a situation up here" the Captain of the Dagmar said "another Colonial ship has jumped in it appears to be a Botanical Cruiser."

"You're frakking kidding me!" He snapped a Botanical Cruiser was exactly what they needed somewhere with bio domes capable of growing the crops that the fleet would need. "Challenge and gain the ID!" He said launching another pair of missiles at ground targets.

"They identify as the Thaumaturge with four hundred and thirty-one souls on board." Dagmar responded "sir, they say they are willing to follow our commands."

"Fantastic, have them fall into formation with you." Boyle said hugging the co-pilot beside him, luck appeared to be with them but it wasn't a time for mistakes. "Do not broadcast the fleets location to them until the Cylons show up or we return allow them to move into formation and render any assistance you need to."

"Affirmative, Commander, Dagmar out." He said as Boyle shifted the position of the Hunter over the asteroid continuing to search for another ship.

"Switch in priority we can put food on that ship and the freighter, I want to find something with guns big damned guns." He said bringing the ship over the asteroid continuing their search for now the Cylon Centurions appeared to have been eliminated.

"Freighter Carnot to Boyle we're ready to go." The crew from the newly acquired military freighter said as the ship slowly began to rise from the ground.

"We'll cover you" Boyle said as he spied another target "there! I want that one!" He snapped spying a ship surrounded by wrecks "Raptors Three and Four move from escort to location Grid Six-Two and take Minotaur-class Gunship. The Cylons are keeping a low head move fast and smart."

"Understood Commander, we're moving in" the lead Raptor pilot said as the two remaining small craft left the Dagmar and moved into the atmosphere heading for the small ship. The Carnot rose away from the asteroid heading for the Dagmar as further contacts jumped in to the space nearby the Hunter's sensors identified them immediately.

"Hunter to Dagmar, we have four Cylon Raiders that just jumped into local space as soon as the Carnot and Thaumaturge are in position I want you to jump to the fleet the code of the day is Fallout. Stonagel will know what that means. Raptors Three and Four abandon Minotaur salvage, turn and take up our wings we're going after those Raiders."

As the freighter approached the Dagmar and Thaumaturge the three ships began charging their FTL Drives while the Hunter and two Raptors approached the Cylon raiders. As they did missiles from the Raiders flew out towards the Hunter only for the weapons mounted onboard the Hunter to shoot them down. The Cylons quickly adapted increasing their closing speed to engage with guns but both Raptors and the Hunter retaliated firing six missiles between them downing three of the four Raptors, the fourth continued to close as the three civilian ships behind the Hunter escaped.

"Raptors Three and Four jump clear of the system" Boyle ordered knowing that it would leave the Hunter behind to take on the last Cylon raider alone and knowing it would leave the Hunter stranded here without an FTL drive. Neither of the Raptor pilots questioned the order and jumped clear from the system. Quickly the distance between the Hunter and the Raider diminished until they were engaged in close quarters the Raider attempted to attack the Hunter from the side where only one of the turrets could engage but Boyle was ready for the Raider's move and expertly turned the ship in space allowing the gunners to bring their guns on target destroying the incoming Raider. Wreckage from the ship bounced off the Hunter but they were no threat to the Hunter.

"DRADIS contact!" His co-pilot called out "it's the Agosta he said naming the Adamant-class Frigate which would be large enough to carry the Hunter on one of its external docking ports it would be a slow process but they'd get the job done. "Further DRADIS contact three Capital Ship sized craft!"

"Contact the Agosta, order them to jump away."

"Message over all standard communication frequencies."

"This is Amy Brand commander of the Colonial Postal Transport ship Lucky 9 to unidentified Adamant-class Frigate and Hunter craft, identify yourselves immediately." The female voice said Matthew Boyle's face broke from one of tension to one of joy as he and his co-pilot exchanged a look of recognition of the voice.

"Amelia Brand you daughter of a frakker what are you doing here?" Boyle transmitted knowing he'd get a reaction from her which came close to the joy he felt at this moment.

"Nice to see your alive wee man" another voice, this one male, said over the frequency it took Boyle a moment to recognise it but when he did he sat up straight his hand reaching for the weapons controls before he stopped himself. "I think we need to talk, Captain."


	11. Eleven - Old Friends

Eleven old friends

Fifteen years ago

After five long years Matthew Boyle had left Colonial Fleet just six months ago his grandfather had passed away joining the Gods and leaving Matthew with some credits and a dying wish, leave Colonial Fleet before it gets you killed, he had and now he was between jobs. He wanted to buy a ship of his own and chart his own path but even with the substantial amount of credits he'd been left with he would need a job to get his ship.

Now on Saggitaron in a Fleet bar he sat and waited as he'd been told to waiting for the job opportunity to come by. As he nursed his second Ambrosia another man sat beside him, he was in his late 30s more than ten years Matthew's senior he was dressed in a loose-fitting shirt with a waistcoat over the top just like those terrible renegade pilots from the science fiction films. After five years in a Viper cockpit he knew the difference. The Cylon War had been over for fifteen years yet men and women still died in training accidents and defending shipping lanes from unscrupulous individuals' intent on breaking the law.

A drink was placed in front of him "drink up" the man said Matthew finished his current drink and pulled the new drink to him taking a sip it was Ambrosia but of a different vintage with a stronger sweeter taste. "I hear you're looking for work? My names Wilkes, Justin Wilkes, I'm looking for an able body that can follow orders and do the job that's required." He said looking at Matthew "I heard you're looking for a well-paying job?"

"I am, there are limits though" he replied he was an Ex-colonial pilot he wasn't ready to shoot down former colleagues. He sat there drinking the Ambrosia allowing Wilkes to consider it.

"We won't kill anyone if we don't need to" Wilkes promised him "if you do well, you'll be well paid and in the frame for another job."

"I'm in" Matthew replied making a decision as he downed the rest of his drink.

A few hours later Wilkes and Matthew were in a hanger on Sagitarron inside sat a large freighter, called Mother, with twenty to thirty people standing talking. They stopped and turned towards the two men "you're late" one of the men said he seemed irritated at Wilkes.

"I needed to pick up newbie here, this is Matthew Boyle, he's going to rear gunner Hunter Four." Wilkes said introducing him. "Don't worry he comes recommended."

"Foster was going to gunner four" the man replied another behind looked a bit surprised and was looking Matthew up and down sizing him up.

"Foster is leading seizure team, you're the best damned man for the job" Wilkes said looking at the second man "Boyle has the experience and the chops to gun Hunter Four." Wilkes said looking at the younger man "I fought with his grandfather in the War, I vouch for him."

Hours later Matthew was on board the craft known as Hunter Four it was perhaps two or three times the size of a Colonial Raptor with two bulbous gunner positions at the front mounted on stubby winds while a third turret was positioned between the engines at the rear which was where Matthew was now seated. The ships were inside the hold of the freighter he had counted another five Hunter craft on board which was a significant amount of firepower that the Colonial Military would like to know about.

Matthew Boyle had no access to Mother's navigation system they just didn't trust him enough all he knew was the freighter had been underway for some time and they hadn't jumped meaning they were still near Sagittaron. He had found out there was a common area in the middle of the ship with rack space, a unisex head like military ships and a compact food preparation area he didn't know the crew so had kept away.

"All Hunters we're approaching launch time our target is a cubit transport from Libran which is defended by up to eight corporate manned Raptors. We don't expect them to resist since this money is not theirs and the banks have plenty coverage but if they do, we'll knock them out anyway we can." He said briefing them Matthew sat in his gunners' position and realised there and then that he'd fallen in with those he'd seen fellow pilots killed by while hunting them down. He looked at the firing controls to the pair of Kinetic Energy Weapons (KEW) which were housed in his turret and wondered if he could shoot down another pilot for cash. He had killed in Colonial Fleet service, he was sure of that, he had seen pirate ships explode and crash following his attacks and he had been paid at the end of the month where was the difference? He wondered what line was he about to cross?

Suddenly he was jolted from his thoughts as the floor below the ship was retracted and the six Hunters were in open space. Around him space was black and vast with only his instruments for illumination now free from the freighter he had access to sensor data from the Hunters and from the freighter he could see they were rapidly gaining on the freighter and its six strong Raptor guard. If they were civilian model Raptors, they were likely non-Jump capable with rear guns, known as "Flying Pillboxes" in Colonial service, instead of the powerful ECM suites seen on military variants. Against the heavily armed Hunters they wouldn't stand a chance.

"This is The Rising Tide of Change to money runners, we have you outgunned surrender now and you go home in escape pods resist and I promise you that you'll go home in body bags." Wilkes transmitted over the wireless it was a threat and a warning.

"Pirate Force this is Raptor 32 of the Nemesis Security Group, you have no authority here" the pilot said as one of the Raptors raised out of formation to engage them. "Withdraw before your actions are reported..." his message was cut off as his Raptor was hit by two missiles fired from one of the Hunters upon impact with the craft the missiles exploded consuming the craft and its crew in a fireball. With at least three people now dead the other Raptors had a decision to make surrender or fight. Boyle watched as the remaining Raptors and the freighter surrendered one after the other until all had powered down.

"Hunter Four and Six you'll take care of the Raptors while Foster's group goes on board the freighter" Wilkes commanded. Boyle felt the ship move to the side slightly and the remaining five Raptors could be seen moving to a single area he trained his guns over them inside their forward cockpit he could see the two pilots inside vulnerable under the Hunter's guns but he had no intention on firing.

There was no resistance in boarding the freighter and quickly the crew were rounded up and put into escape pods and jettisoned into space. This left the freighter in their sole control and the five remaining Raptors. "Each Raptor will land and the crew will go into escape pods. Failure to do so will result in your destruction." Wilkes said over the wireless Matthew Boyle was glad to hear that he was honouring his word with unnecessary killing. The crews left their ships one by one entering escape pods before being ejected into space the Hunters and both freighters moved away leaving the pods in space.

It took several hours to reach their destination, an asteroid in deep space, there all of the ships landed and the crews disembarked entering a complex built into the rock. Matthew followed the rest of the Hunter's crew following them to a recreation area there were people waiting for them with food and drink. Sitting down at one of the wooden benches a plate of food was placed in front of him he wasn't complaining and quickly started to eat. Wilkes soon sat down in front of him "you did well."

"I sat in a seat guarded some defenceless pilots" he replied continuing to eat "no unnecessary killing."

"There was none. If that Raptor had been allowed to fire the others would have to which I couldn't allow." Wilkes said "not every mission will go like that and some will be worse there will be some deaths." He explained "it's up to you are you in or out?"

Boyle sat there for several moments before turning towards him "I'm in" he said making peace with the choice.

Six months later

After several missions Matthew Boyle had made some serious savings and had looked into buying his own ship a former Colonial Military vessel which he'd seen in a junkyard at Picon but he wasn't there yet and was still sitting in on missions with the Rising Tide of Change. He'd been assigned to a different Hunter, Number Two, captained by Amelia Brand she was a hard one to break through to but once he'd gotten her talking, she seemed to feel similarly to him about no unnecessary killing.

Unfortunately, a raid against the Colonial Fleet at Sagittaron had turned badly the freighter they had planned to hit had been carrying four Colonial Vipers as limpet craft on its back. Obviously, someone had gotten sick of their little spree and called in reinforcements the pilots of those Vipers would have been in their craft for hours waiting for someone to try their luck with the freighter but already they'd been effective.

Facing military Vipers with trained pilots the Rising Tide had scattered into retreat one Hunter, his old bird Hunter Four, had been destroyed and their targets gone with the Vipers now in hot pursuit chasing them. From his rear gunner position Boyle opened fire with the paired Kinetic Energy Weapons in his turret aiming below or above the Vipers position intent on keeping them at bay instead of outright destroying them. They'd killed the crew of Hunter Four but Boyle's rationale was that they were just doing their job and a different side of the coin from him he didn't need to kill them just stop them killing him. When one of the Vipers got too close, he'd aim to disable the fighter targeting the ships wings or ventral fin to cripple them or aiming for the fighter but away from the cockpit which would allow the pilot to escape. The defence fire was not enough to stop the Vipers who dived down on the Hunters strafing them with their own KEWs causing armour damage.

"Hunter Two, taking fire, Mother we need an assist!" Brand snapped throwing the ship to port trying to shake off the pursuers. The Vipers were smaller, faster and more agile even if she was a better pilot they weren't getting away.

"We're almost ready" Wilkes responded from the freighter which was ahead of the Hunters.

"Not soon enough…" Brand said watching the two lead Vipers spiral towards them firing as they came their fire directed into the ship's cockpit. "Seal your suits!" Brand called out as bullets slammed through the cockpit glass creating a vacuum. Hunter Two began to spiral out of control as the pilots were either killed or incapacitated. As the ship spun the freighter finally acted ejecting several cargo pods of cargo into the path of the incoming Vipers creating a massive debris field which caused the destruction of two Vipers immediately and forced the other two to break off turning into the fire of the remaining two active Hunters.

"Hunters get onboard we need to get the frak out of here!" Wilkes called out. On board the spinning Hunter Two Matthew Boyle fought his way through the spinning ship to the cockpit as he made his way through the ship, he saw both side gunners were unconscious. Forcing his way into the cockpit he saw that both of them were injured the co-pilot was likely dead while Brand didn't look good either. "Hunter Two, we've got more Vipers incoming status!"

"Two to Mother, one crewmen KIA, three WIA and non-responsive." He said dragging the co-pilot out of his seat. "The ship's open to vacuum." He said giving a running commentary. "I'm bringing the engines back-online." He said seeing that one of the thrusters were still operational. He nudged the Hunter forwards closing the gap between the Hunter and the Freighter close enough for the deck crews to fire harpoons into the ship Matthew felt the impacts of at least three in the hull. The crew onboard the ship then dragged the small ship onboard before the Freighter jumped clear of the area.

Two years later

Following the disaster, the Rising Tide of Change had all but scattered with all but a handful of crewmen on the Freighter and crew for the two remaining Hunters remaining. Amy Brand's Hunter which had been badly damaged during the battle had been stripped for parts further reducing their resources. With reduced firepower and options, they had abandoned Helios Gamma completely and moved to a more legitimate trade of protecting freighters in the Helios Beta system near the gas giant of Hera and its twenty-nine moons.

During this time, they had modified their Hunters and Mother to fit more in with the local traffic and tried to avoid major confrontations with Colonial Fleet instead playing the part of legitimate traders. They'd painted the name Descubierta on Mother's side and falsified registration papers on Virgon for the ship. They'd taken regular freight jobs, courier jobs and even transported a cargo of livestock from one moon to another. When they did need to deploy the Hunters more often than not Matthew Boyle found himself paired with Amy Brand in one of the remaining Hunters with had given them plenty of time to get to know each other. One thing had led to another, and another, and they'd started a physical fling giving each of them a release from the pressures and sometimes from the boredom.

Lying in bed onboard their Freighter Boyle felt Brand move her head on his arm "morning" he said looking at her "how you doing?"

"I could do with a few hours more sleep." She admitted "what do you think of Wilkes plan?" She asked Wilkes had briefed them the night before that their current line of jobs was barely covering the freighter's running costs and that the only option, he saw was to go back to pirating making the most of the traffic around Hera while they could. He'd never been a huge fan of their freight running practices and had always wanted to take on edgier deals but the crew had more often than not argued otherwise.

"It's not a great one." She admitted she'd gotten used to helping people and she liked the lack of trouble they'd been in since arriving at Hera even if it didn't bring in much cash.

"What do you want to do about it?" He asked continuing to push as she shifted on his arm trying to go back to sleep.

"There's not much we can do the freighter is jump capable the Hunters are not." She said while it was possible to travel between planets without an FTL it was a lot less efficient and time consuming. The Hunter probably had the range but with a full crew it would be uncomfortable going too far.

"I had an idea." He admitted he'd been up most of the night coming up with the plan but it would take her help to pull it off. "Victoria, Chara and Holden are with us. We take a Hunter and we go let Wilkes cause trouble for himself, we go and make our own lives." He suggested essentially breaking up the group.

"You get your freighter?" She asked smirking he knew that wasn't the life she wanted but he knew it had to be better than working for Wilkes and becoming a pirate again, be his own boss.

"We'll see" he said "we're going to have to cause a little hassle for Wilkes to give us a head start, destroy the FTL leave him stranded here." He proposed he'd figured out where they'd need to hit the ship to make a difference.

"We'll be going at sub-light he could easily follow us." She pointed out, at sub-FTL speeds there wouldn't be much between them.

"Not if junction box 42 encounters an accident before we launch." He said she shot him a look Box 42 was one of the main switches on the entire ship everything including life support was patched in through that section. "It won't leave them stranded, or dead unless they decide not to fix it, but it will give us the time to get the frak out of here." He said hitting the box would cripple the ship but not immediately kill anyone it was an option.

"I'm in"


	12. Twelve - Old Enemies

Chapter 12 – Old Enemies

Twelve and a Half years ago

The next morning the crew got about their business like nothing else had changed. Matthew Boyle tried to keep things as light as possible their group of five were outnumbered by the other crew. He stayed in the hanger bay ready to play his part when it came to it. He'd already been doing "maintenance" on the other Hunter which would reduce the ship's maximum engine performance to docking thrusters if the engines were not primed in a very particular way. Like the work that they were planning on the freighter it was nothing critical but would slow them down. He also had a sidearm which he hoped he wouldn't have to use.

Elsewhere on the ship Amelia Brand and Anthony Chara had walked around the ship twice they had pretended to check various systems of the ship and noticed that Wilkes had plenty of extra personnel in the corridors. "He thinks something is up" Chara said quietly.

"Something is up" Brand replied quietly

"We won't be able to open a junction box with this many people around" Chara said as they kept walking "especially not the one we need."

"Agreed" Brand agreed as she walked "which is why I borrowed a more effective key just in case" she said raising four fingers.

"You cannot be serious the damage…" Chara to say but stopped as someone else began to walk past.

"Matt, will get over it" Brand replied immediately "if he cannot get over the damage then maybe we shouldn't be together."

"Seriously?"

"It may be the only way" Brand said neither of them were talking about Brand and Boyle's relationship instead they were talking about the explosive she had. The four was for a "G-4" detonator it would be more than enough to destroy the junction box unfortunately it would also likely cripple the ship for a far longer period than they had planned.

"I hope you know what you are doing" Chara said looking down at her as they turned onto the corridor with Box 42.

"Aim to wound" she said walking ahead of him as he drew a sub-machine gun from the small of his back, she looked at him impressed she hadn't realised he was so well armed. Chara crouched in the middle of the corridor scanning one way and another as Brand placed the explosive on the outer doors of the junction box. A military vessel would have a reinforced frame and probably a couple of guards but not a civilian freighter the explosive would be plenty to blow through the metal casing.

As Brand worked Chara squeezed of a couple of rounds cutting down one of the crew both shots struck the man in the chest knocking him down dead. Brand looked down the corridor and then at Chara who hadn't stopped for a moment and was now looking down the corridor the other way. Instead of questioning him she continued to work on the detonator setting the timer. Behind her Chara fired again as someone else appeared moments later alarms sounded and Brand knew that more crew would know about it.

In the hanger bay Nick Holden and Victoria Kryvych had arrived at the Hunter with Matt Boyle and had joined him in waiting. They'd made a show of removing one of the ship's guns and cleaning it making a show of maintaining it and returning it to the vessel. Suddenly an explosion rocked the vessel "what the frak?" Boyle asked out loud drawing his weapon glancing at the other two neither of them appeared to know anything. "Get on board Victoria warm her up, Nick man the aft gun, we might need to defend ourselves." Outside the hanger there was sound of automatic weapons fire and Boyle took up a defensive position aiming his sidearm at the door.

Running into the hanger came first Brand and then Chara who backed into the room firing his weapon. As he did Brand sealed the door behind them turning to see Boyle raise from his position. "Amy, what the frak is going on?"

"Wilkes is onto us" she said catching her breath as there was a banging on the hanger door "more guards on" she said glancing at Chara "we had to improvise and wound a couple of them."

"With that?" He said glancing at Chara's weapon "you mean kill?"

"It was them or us, Matthew, we need to go." The big man said "Wilkes will kill us for what we have done."

"He might still the doors are sealed" Boyle said "if we'd simply knocked out the power, we could have manually opened them, now there's an alert the doors are locked down."

"We've got weapons" Brand said looking at Boyle "Wilkes wants to keep his ship, he'll let us go." She glanced from Boyle to Chara "get on board."

All three of them entered the Hunter sealing the hatch behind them "Anthony take the port gun, Victoria the starboard" Brand ordered "you're with me" she said looking at Boyle heading into the cockpit when there she indicated to him to get into the pilot's seat while she took the co-pilot's position grabbing a communication headset. "Brand to Wilkes let us go and you have no more problems."

"No more problems, what the frak are you on about Brand you and that damned giant took out eighteen of our crew and a junction box who the frak do you think you are?"

"We've had enough of your life Wilkes we need a new path, one of our own."

"You and Boyle? He'll never put up with your actions. He's too good a person."

"He's sitting beside me at the moment" she said glancing at Boyle who had already brought the ship off the deck and orientated it towards the doors.

"He won't stay with you and you know it Amy" Wilkes taunted her Boyle didn't speak instead he concentrated on the job.

"We've got an alternate option, we blast our way out of here" Brand suggested "we'll take half your ship with us." She said as the hanger doors opened Nick opened fire with rear Kinetic Energy Weapon turret cutting into the ship's hull intentionally missing Wilkes crew punching holes in the floor. "Wilkes, don't make us do this!" She snapped

"End this now!" Wilkes screamed into the intercom, "we'll let you leave at the next port."

"Negative, you'll kill us!" Boyle responded "Wilkes, it's Boyle, you're right I don't agree with the unnecessary killing that has occurred today." He said "but I also don't agree with your strategy, the birds we have left cannot compete with Colonial Vipers." He said as more KEW fire struck the hanger floor "release the ship now, before our fire rips through the ship and exit's the hull."

The doors to the hanger behind the ship closed and below the two Hunters the main doors opened slowly as Wilkes released the lock. "Thank you" Boyle said diving his ship out of the freighter's hanger door.

"I'll find you both and I'll make sure that you pay for it." Wilkes warned them as their Hunter dived away from the ship the freighter didn't fire at them either because it couldn't or because Wilkes had decided not to try and eliminate them now.

Three days later

The journey on the small cramped Hunter was a long and uncomfortable one even the short trip to the moon of Iris. Matthew Boyle only left the cockpit to go to the head taking to even eating his ration in the cockpit while Amy Brand had spent much time in the rear of the ship speaking with the other three mutineers from Wilkes crew.

As they approached Iris Boyle was joined in cockpit by Brand "I'll cut to the chase, I'm leaving when we land. I've spoken to the others and they agree that they'd rather stay with you than take their chances out there with me." She said staring at the moon ahead of them leaving unsaid that she was not just leaving the crew but leaving him.

"Where will you go?"

"Oh, I'll find my way" she said "just put me on the ground and I'll disappear" she said glancing at him Boyle was now the one facing the moon below "you'll never have to see me again."

"Good luck" Boyle said deciding enough damage had been done. Later that afternoon the landed at one of Iris spaceports and without speaking another word to Matthew she left the Hunter heading into the port. Once the ship was refuelled Boyle took the Hunter off moon before someone linked it to raids, they had made in the area instead heading for Virgon, intent on buying the ship that Matthew had seen when they were there before.


	13. Thirteen - Revelations

Chapter 13 - Revelations

In space the Hunter hovered in space between the Agosta and Lucky 9 Matthew Boyle stunned at the voices he'd heard over the wireless. He'd known that Justin Wilkes and Amelia Brand were both still around before the Cylon attacks that Amy had gone straight and joined the Colonial Post Service while Wilkes ran a collection point for smugglers but had stopped the raids against Colonial military units but he hadn't heard they were together nor that they'd survived the Holocaust had struck the Colonial people.

He reached for the weapons control but before he could do anything two civilian freighters arrived taking up flanking positions to the Postal Cruiser one of them was clearly armed with anti-ship missiles together with the postal ship Boyle was sure they'd outgun the Lucky 9. "Boyle, surrender we've got you outgunned come on board we need to speak face-to-face."

"Negative, I haven't got time for your games Wilkes" he snapped back "Listen to me, I've taken responsibility for survivors over four thousand of them I won't waste time while their defence is here."

On board the Lucky 9 Brand glanced angrily at Wilkes "you don't run this ship, I let you onboard with the agreement that this was my ship."

"And now my ships have arrived too" he pointed out, "my guns could take them out as well."

"Boyle claims to have other ships out there" Brand said looking over at the DRADIS screen readings "DRADIS seems to indicate other ships jumped out. We are looking to save our species Wilkes maybe we should listen to him."

"You trust him?" Wilkes asked "after all these years a lot has changed."

"I trusted him when we decided to betray you and make our own paths" she said honestly looking at him "Boyle was the one who wanted to minimise casualties and end what we were doing."

"He kept the Hunter and by the looks of it stole a museum piece." Wilkes said noting the Hunter, a craft he had helped design and that Brand and Boyle had stolen was still armed and that the Adamant was also armed.

"And I restored the guns on the Lucky 9 far from Colonial Fleet assets it was hardly the peaceful paradise the Quorum claimed it was." Brand reminded him as the wireless activated again.

"You know the Cylons know we're here, they'll probably send more units to check on the ones we took out, we need to get out of here and get back to defend our people. I'm docking the Hunter on the Agosta shoot if you want, but we're getting the frak out of here while we can." He said Brand and Wilkes watched the screen as the Hunter's signal began to move until it merged with the larger craft.

"Make a decision" Brand said to Wilkes.

"It's your ship" Wilkes said continuing to watch the DRADIS.

"Make ready for a jump, pass to both freighters they are coming with us." Brand said "give me direct contact with Boyle." She ordered "Lucky 9 Actual to Boyle transmit your jump coordinates we're willing to accompany you for the good of our race."

"Understood, transmitting jump coordinates, be warned there are multiple civilian vessels at this location do not open fire unless we confirm Cylon targets are present." Boyle ordered

"We will be careful" Brand replied over the wireless, "all weapons to safe mode, confirm Adironack's missiles are also in safe mode" she commanded Wilkes who nodded raising his own wireless to speak to the armed freighter he nodded to Brand that they were ready. "Standing by" Brand said contacting Boyle.

"Jump in three, two, one" Boyle counted down and then the Adamant and attached Hunter jumped clear, a moment later the Lucky 9, Adironack and the other freighter all jumped to the survivor fleet.

Survivor Fleet

Survivor Count: 5,900

As they emerged from the jump the DRADIS onboard Lucky 9 suddenly detected ten additional capital sized contacts over the Lucky 9, her two freighters and the Adamant and multiple small craft. The largest among them was a Heracles-class Gunship which had its weapons aimed at the Lucky 9. "Massena Actual to Lucky 9, if you know what's good for you, you'll stand-down now." Boyle said as the Hunter detached from the Adamant and began to head towards the Heracles-class vessel Brand and Wilkes looked at each other their mouths slightly apart in surprise. "Amelia, Justin I want to see you both onboard the Massena II as soon as possible."

Soon afterwards Brand and Wilkes arrived onboard the Heracles to be met by several armed marines. From there they were taken to an interrogation suite where they were asked to sit and wait until Boyle arrived. "Welcome to the fleet" he said looking at them sat at the single metal table in the room.

"Thank you, Commander?" Brand said looking up at Boyle he was older a little grey showing in his jet-black hair unlike the rank he currently wore he wore a standard dark green jumpsuit which you'd see on a civilian ship.

"A long story" he admitted with a smirk "to say the least the Massena's crew have found plenty of other survivors and their ships."

"This is the Massena?" Wilkes asked astonished "not the freighter I'd heard you were running around in."

"This is the Massena II" Boyle explained "my original ship was lost in battle with the Cylons. Now to you two how did we get here?"

"We're trying to survive, strength in numbers" Brand explained "we've been on the run…" she began to explain. Outside the Massena II's CIC was directing the Lucky 9 and her accompanying freighters to their positions within the fleet. As the three ships began to move into the fleet Centurions activated from the hulls of the ships and began burning towards the ships of the fleet.

In the CIC Massena XO Will Stonagal jumped to action on detecting the Centurions "Set Battle Stations, have the Vipers that are out there target the Centurions that are in flight and launch alert fiighters!" He commanded rapidly issuing orders grabbing one of the microphones attached to the CIC's central table keying "CIC to Boyle, Contact CIC immediately!" He snapped as the Centurions continued on their paths to the civilian ships and towards the Massena II.

In interrogation Boyle heard the call from Stonagal and grabbed the phone on the wall listening to his XO's explanation to what was going on. "Have the Vipers and our point defence guns target the Cylons even at the expense of ourselves, pass to the crew break out arms we'll need to defend ourselves." He said listening to Stonagal a bit further "no, I want to talk to their CO's first." He placed the phone back on the wall and turned towards the two Captains "what the hell have you two done!?" He shouted angrily slamming his hands down on the table seeing their faces change to shock "there are Cylon Centurions on their way towards my ships, they came from your ships towards mine start giving me answers NOW!" He snapped

"We know nothing of them" Brand said immediately but Boyle didn't stop instead he grabbed Wilkes by the collars and pulled him up onto his feet Amelia Brand raised to her feet beside them "Matt, please we know nothing about this we've both been on the run since the fall of the colonies."

"He was safe on his little rock" Boyle snapped seeing Wilkes surprise. "Yes, I knew where you were just like you kept tabs on us, I kept tab on you." He said admitting to it "now answers!"

"I know nothing about these Centurions" Wilkes answered panicked as alarms sounded indicating an intruder was onboard the Massena II.

"We travelled through a colonial ship graveyard" Brand said "we were searching for survivors, perhaps they boarded us during our flight through the remains of the ships." Amelia suggested Matt continued to hold Wilkes as he looked at her "we know nothing about them."

"Well you're going to" Boyle said releasing Wilkes' clothing "follow me" he said stepping out of the room with the two of them behind him he opened a cabinet and drew out three sidearms one was his own the other two for Wilkes and Boyle. "Help me defend this damned ship."


	14. Fourteen Aftermath

Aftermath

Survivor Count: 5,700

It had been two days since the Cylon Centurion attack and the man that many believed was the hero of the crew of the civilian ship Colonial Heavy Transport 72. During the Cylon ambush a single Centurion had boarded the Civilian ship and gained access to the crew area killing indiscriminately as it moved through the ship. It had taken the actions of one man armed with a lead pipe to motivate the people to act together and to take down the Centurion but it had come at a cost one hundred and eighteen people had been killed by the machine before it had been stopped.

"Can you hear me?" The doctor asked looking over at him the man glanced to the right and saw his wife Tami and their daughter Megan sitting off to the side and smiled.

"Yes, I can" he whispered his mouth was dry.

"You did well Doral, your actions saved our ship from that monster, you're a hero." His wife Tami said Doral smiled.

"I just wanted to make sure you were all ok."

Onboard the Massena II Commander Matthew Boyle sat looking at the casualty report eighty-two people had died onboard the Massena II hunting down the twenty Centurions who had gotten onboard but it was nothing compared to the civilian casualties onboard Colonial Heavy 72. Already he had discussed with Major Sinclair about deploying an armed party of marines onto each of the ships of the fleet for defence but the Major was concerned that they would be used for crowd control which he did not want.

After the ambush they had jumped twice away from their previous location and the ships were beginning to show the strain. The Massena II, Agosta (Adamant), Caerphilly (Manticore), the two military freighters and Lucky 9 (Transport Cruiser) were all military or former military vessels each of them were designed for extended operations without excessive additional maintenance but the other seven ships they had with them were beginning to show the strain and would need more work the longer they operated. They had twenty-six functional Vipers of varying types following the arrival of the Lucky 9 and the cargo in her hold, nine Raptors, four Sweepers, two Hunters and seven non-jumpable shuttles.

He needed to find them a safe port where they could rest their crews and replace damaged parts. Instead of taking his capital ships and freighters to potential hot zones he planned to pair up eight of the Raptors and send them to four possible locations for them to hide out. He didn't plan to run around the Colonies hiding from Centurions forever but they needed time.

Rising from his desk he headed out of his office and down the corridor and into the pilot briefing room. Because the Massena II was not a carrier vessel and not designed to brief a large number of pilots at once the briefing room was nowhere near the flight deck. In this case the sixteen Raptor pilots had transferred from other ships and were squeezed into the tiny room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming please be seated" he said several of the pilots sat down but there were not enough seats for them all to sit. "We'll work on that for next time" he said seeing smirks from a couple of them. "You are all aware of our present situation, we currently have enough fuel, water and food to keep us in extended operations but we do not have the capability of maintaining the ships of this fleet over an extended period." He said looking at them "I need your eight Raptors to scout the twelve colonies, I want you to find somewhere where we could stash this fleet, preferably being able to land some of the ships we have so we can do some work on them. It doesn't need to be perfect; it doesn't need to last for a long time, it just needs to buy us some time." He said he saw a couple of sideways glances between the pilots. "You guessed it this mission is going to be dangerous" he said looking at each of them "I'm sorry to say I don't expect you all to come back, if it were an option I'd offer you a chance to stand-down but it isn't I need my best Raptor pilots on this."

"We'll do the mission, Commander, just give us our targets." A young female wearing a Captain's insignia said.

"Thank you, Captain Harmon, to aid you in your mission I've pulled in every air-to-air missile we have available in the fleet your Raptors are being outfitted as we speak on the Changsha. From here you'll be heading to your ships, we've sent mission packages to each ship, you'll each deploy in pairs to your targets over the next few hours." He explained

"Sir, question" Harmon asked raising her hand he nodded "if the fleet has to jump when we are on mission how will we know where to return to with the information we find?"

"You won't be returning to the fleet." He said seeing the surprise on their faces. "Instead you'll each be travelling to the same point and meeting the Caerphilly which will be waiting for you. They will top off your tanks and escort you back to the fleet."

"And if Caerphilly is attacked while it waits for us?"

"We've arranged a secondary rendezvous in that case. I can guarantee the Caerphilly will not abandon you because I will be aboard her waiting for you. Good hunting pilots."

"We won't let you down Commander" Harmon said confidently

"So say we all" the others replied together.

Hours later two Raptors jumped into the Helios Delta system arriving beside the gas world of Styx. The world orbited differently from all of the other planets in the system and had always been uninhabited. They hoped that this world was remote enough for the Cylons not to have checked it out.

Lt Annie Stark sat in the flight position of the first Raptor as it jumped into the space near Styx. "Begin DRADIS…"

"DRADIS Contact!" Her ECO shouted in the back cabin out the window Stark could see what the sensors had detected. Outside their position hung the wreck of a Colonial Gunstar. Akin to a mini-Battlestar the Gunstar looked like a more pointed Battlestar with its side flight pods removed and a single flight pod attached to the roll bar above the hull. "It's dead"

"Someone else thought the same as us." Stark said "Razor, this place is was used as a hideout already."

"More DRADIS contact!" Razor called out from behind "two Raiders detaching from the hull."

"Laying in wait, spool up FTL, copy to ship two." She ordered reaching for the controls "we're out of here jump!" She called out as the two Raptors jumped away moments before Cylon missiles flew past their position.

Caerphilly hung in space waiting for the Raptors to return. In the ship's previous operations, the small patrol ship had been damaged by Cylon missile fire but Boyle was impressed with the crew's repairs. "Looks good, Captain Steele"

"Thank you, Commander, I'm proud of what we've done. We're still unable to access a couple of areas but the ship's mostly functional."

"I'm seeing that" Boyle said walking around the small bridge most of the systems appeared to be fully operational. "I assume the torpedoes from Lucky 9 are onboard and behaving?" He said walking past the tactical station.

"Two of them aren't but otherwise they are locked and loaded." Steele said from the centre of the room "we'll still only have a single shot against a Baseship then we'll have to bug out."

"It's better than nothing…"

"DRADIS contact" one of the crew called out "Raptor One, Styx is a no go." He reported reading the message from the vessel.

"That makes four" Boyle said, "we're running out of units to wait for."

Captain Marlena Harmon sat in the cockpit and looked down at the dead world of Troy. "It's perfect" she said quietly to herself. "The mining equipment that was left over will cover the metal of our ships." She said

"No life signs, Lena" Ralph Black said from the back.

"The mines have been abandoned for years" she said glancing back "my daddy was employed there once upon a time he said the quarters were cramped and overly warm but that it was an alright place to work." She said "luckily he wasn't here to experience the fall."

"You think we could put people in there while the ships are worked on?" He asked "if we need to that is?"

"There was quite a workforce down there once upon a time. Some of the resources for the first Mercury-class Battlestars were mined here." She said proudly remembering when her father had said that to her that he was helping build the future of the Colonial fleet.

"We can use it then." Black replied "Raptor Six has its part of the data."

"Excellent let's jump us back to the Caerphilly." She ordered moments later both Raptors blinked out of the system heading to the Caerphilly.

Three days later the fourteen ships of the fleet had landed on the rock world of Troy landing in between mining equipment and the remains of the facilities that had been left behind with the Massena II in the middle of the ships. As a precaution the Massena II would remain at combat readiness for the duration of their stay while other ships would be in various states of readiness while they were worked on. Already fleet engineers were suggesting that they could break down the remaining equipment on Troy and use them to reinforce some of the ship's hulls.

Meanwhile Matthew Boyle had an idea to shore up morale in the fleet and had called over one hundred representatives from across the fleet to the Massena II. Standing in front of them Matthew Boyle spoke to the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I was asked to return to the Colonies by Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galactica to find survivors and to follow the Galactica's path away from the Colonies in hope to find somewhere where we can find peace. There are now more than five thousand of us in this fleet and while there are those who put their lives on the line every day there are also those who show that everyone can make a difference. Today as Commander of this fleet I would like to welcome Doral Aditya to the stand." He said turning to the side as a still heavily bandaged Doral stepped out from the side and joined him on the stand. "When a Centurion boarded his vessel this man and many others rose up against the machine and made sure that it couldn't do more damage." He said to be answered with applause from the crowd. "As you all know I am Commander of this fleet because of my position as commander of this vessel which acts as its guardian, I am not a military man, I cannot officially award Colonial medals but today I would like to give to Doral Aditya the Colonial Medal of Valour which has been forged by crewmen of this vessel from a salvaged Viper craft." She said picking up the medal which was the Colonial seal attached to a red ribbon Doral bowed his head and allowed Boyle to place it over his head. Boyle then stood to the side and let Doral take the stand.

"Thank you, Commander, receiving this from you means more than anything the Colonial Government could have given me because I know you, I know the people that are in this hanger and that are in this fleet. I took the actions that I did on Colonial Heavy 72 because I wished to protect my shipmates, my family, my child and my fleet." He said which was followed by applause from the fleet "I did not see a Cylon, but an invader who had harmed those I love and could harm my family and I wanted to stop them. I feel for those families who lost people in the defence of our transport ship and our home." He glanced at Matthew Boyle before looking down then back at the crowd "but there is something I must admit to… I love my family and I care for my fellow crewmen, and I will never betray this fleet, but the truth is more important… I am a Cylon." He said dropping his head down clasping onto the Medal of Valour as Marines rushed him from either side.


	15. Fifteen New Realities

New Realities

Survivor count: 5,697

The announcement of Doral Aditya as a hero of the fleet was supposed to be a morale boosting announcement instead his announcement of being a Cylon had instead caused mass hysteria across the population, there was no hiding that Cylons looked like them now. Even when the marines had rescued Patrick Sinclair, he'd been able to keep things restricted to rumour. Now everything was out in the open.

Even now as the fleet's engineers attempted to make repairs to the ships of the fleet deep inside the crater they had turned into a makeshift harbour. Commander Boyle now stood looking through the brig jail bars at the man who still wore the medal he'd given him around his neck Boyle's sense of betrayal couldn't get higher. "You're a Cylon" he said "what is your mission here?"

"My survival and my family's survival" he said "Commander, may I ask are my family safe?" He asked his wife and daughter he seemed to have a real fear for them.

"Yes, they are, they have been moved to protective custody, did they know you were a Cylon?"

"Yes, I told them once I decided to betray the Cylon species." He admitted "Commander, I was a spy for the Cylons before the attacks that caused the destruction of the Twelve Colonies." He explained "I was assigned to Viper production on Aerlion and was tasked by the Colonial Military with correcting a design flaw in the Viper VII before mass production."

"What design flaw?" Boyle asked out loud more out of curiosity than anything they had sever Mk VII Vipers in the fleet.

"Initial production variants of the fighter lacked an operational dorsal Kinetic Energy Weapon due to colonial technology not being able to adequately compensate for the forces involved during manoeuvring of a Viper." He explained "we spent weeks attempting to fix the issue using conventional means but failed so I used some out of the box thinking and applied Cylon design architecture to the problem." He saw Boyle's surprise and raised his hands "Commander, it uses Colonial technology exclusively but is designed differently from the other weapons."

"So you're an engineer" Boyle said "and what was your Cylon mission?"

"To infiltrate high end Viper production, witness new Viper model development and tag Vipers going to various special operations units across the Twelve Colonies." He explained "the Cylons believed they would take out the majority of Vipers using their CNP program but knew that some Vipers would slip through the cracks and be a threat with surviving units."

"So, you helped get pilots killed?" Boyle asked his anger rising he'd seen enough people killed in this conflict already to come face to face with one of the people responsible.

"No" he said "by the point I became involved in that part of the operation I had met my wife and her daughter and decided that the Cylon path was the wrong one."

"Just like that you turned on your own people?"

"We can feel love, anger, joy, pain, heartbreak. The thought of losing my family drove me to the point of heartbreak. I decided that the Cylons were so driven by rage and the need for revenge that they had lost their way. I wished only for my family to survive."

"So, you didn't tag the Vipers?"

"Oh no I most definitely did, one of them is part of this fleet…" he began to explain Boyle immediately drew his sidearm and pointed it at him "Commander, the device does nothing to the Viper the device was only designed to highlight the Viper to the Cylons." Boyle's pistol did not waver from Doral's head "but I didn't switch them on, the signals were never sent to the Cylons."

"But they can track you?"

"We're not linked into a network" Doral answered "I'm an individual, the only time I will be linked to the Cylons is if this model is killed and I am in range of a download facility. If that happens, I will be reborn in a new identical body and what I know they will know."

"So if we space you then we need to make sure we do so before we travel again." Boyle commented holstering his sidearm again. "How many models are there Mr Doral?"

"Thirteen models in total. 8 of our main group and five who are hidden to us."

"Hidden from you?" Boyle asked confused "they are your people."

"They were the original human form Cylons their location remains a mystery only that they took a ship and left Cylon space after showing us how to create more human form Cylons and providing us with Resurrection technology."

"I want you to show us where the trackers are placed on the Vipers you worked on. I'll provide you with plans." He said Doral nodded "and I want to know if you can identify other Cylon models within the fleet?" Boyle asked

"Only those who are not of the hidden five." He admitted "I will be willing to help you if you guarantee my safety and my family's safety."

"Provide us with valuable data and you have a deal." Doral again nodded his agreement as he did an announcement came over the speakers of the ship.

"Commander Boyle to contact CIC, Commander Boyle contact CIC!" It said he crossed the room and picked a phone off the wall.

"This is Boyle" he said listening to the message from command "understood, I'm on my way, set condition two all ships." He said and without another word he walked out of the brig.

Orion-class Battlestar Seraph

Crew: 150

Elsewhere near the planet a single small snub-nosed WarShip with a control tower on the upper hull behind several forward mounted turrets. Behind the tower were several capital missile launchers covers and more defence turrets while under the hull were two large sensor rays and more defence turrets as well as eight dome like structures.

Behind the ship four star-like Cylon Baseships jumped into the area behind the ship and immediately they began to launch Cylon raiders. The Battlestar continued to burn away from them spraying the area with flak fire while a small number of Vipers and Raptors launched from the underside of the ship.

"Looks like we've stirred up the hornets' nest" Commander Daniel Atler said in the cramped CIC of the vessel. He was in his thirties; he had dark hair and a well-trimmed beard and wore a standard Colonial fleet uniform "have the Vipers maintain a defence formation target as many missiles as they can and stay clear of Seraph's guns." He said as a missile impacted on the upper hull of the ship.

"Commander, we've got a fifth Basestar in the zone." His XO responded he was dark skinned had close cropped black hair and a close-cut beard.

"They really don't like us" Atler said smiling "they must not have liked our firework show over Canceron." He said the Seraph had raided Cylon forces over Canceron using nuclear weapons to destroy three Baseships and a triangular vessel. The Seraph rocked heavily under another missile strike to the upper mall. "Enough of this come to port, all guns to anti-missile fire."

"We can't hold off that many Basestars" his XO Alex Dykes reminded him.

"No hopefully we don't have to for long." Atler said "contact SAR bird and order it to jump into communication range, call in the cavalry." He ordered from outside the ship one of the Raptors jumped clear of the system. As it did two more missiles impacted on the ship's hull behind the ship one of the Basestar's flashed out of existence reappearing on the Seraph's starboard side. "Not too surprising a move, volley fire conventional missiles target that Basestar!" Atler snapped from the rear third of the ship six missile tubes opened and ejected missiles into space the weapons re-orientated themselves and then accelerated rapidly towards the Basestar. Raider's picked off two of the missiles but the other four slammed into the Basestar consuming it in fire.

The Seraph continued on its course firing its weapons against the Basestars that were still pursuing it as a new wave of Cylon Raiders dived towards the Battlestar.

"We're going to get overwhelmed there are too many incoming!" Dykes shouted a warning a three missiles slammed into the side of the vessel's central tower section throwing the crew of the small vessel around. Dykes slammed his head onto a jutting out piece of pipe in the cramped CIC and fell to the deck.

"Medical team to CIC! Call out damage!" Atler shouted as two more missiles slammed into the ship's hull at the rear of the ship the two engine pods faltered briefly threatening to die but they continued going for now. "Com'on where in the name of the Gods are you guys!"


	16. Sixteen - The Colonial Fleet

The Colonial Fleet

Survivor count: 5,697

The Massena II rose off the asteroid leaving the civilian fleet anchored to the ground. In the CIC Commander Boyle watched as the Heracles-class Gunship gained altitude slowly clearing the rim of the crater. In his hand he held the microphone "Captain Bolden, the Massena will not be gone long but until we return, you're in command. Captains Steele and Brand will aid you should any crisis crop up but I suggest you remain in the crater and powered down, stay out of the way." He said looking at the screens as the Massena crossed a kilometre in height. "I understand Captain, but we need to investigate this, we'll be back soon. Massena out." He said putting the phone back into the command table turning towards the jump officer. "Ken, jump the ship." He commanded the young officer nodded and moments later the Massena flashed out of position.

Orion-class Battlestar Seraph

Crew: 150

"Com'on where in the name of the Gods are you guys!" Commander Daniel Atler said as more capital missiles slammed into the Seraph rocking the ship. "Stealth systems?" He asked as the three Cylon Basestar continued to fire on them and their fighters began to swarm the Orion.

"Compromised" Lt Susan Barnes said from her console "defence batteries running hot" she reported looking at her screens as another two missiles hit the Seraph. "We can't stop them all" she said if that wasn't already apparent. "Jump signature!" She called out we've got a ship jumping in off the port side!" She called out.

"They're out of position!" Atler noted relieved that their back up had finally arrived. Suddenly a Heracles-class Gunship entered the space around them and immediately moved forwards quickly its dorsal mounted anti-ship weapons fired first with three shots going straight through one of the Basestar. The gunship continued to power forwards with the ventral mounted weapons now targeting the second Basestar. The weapons quickly ripped through the ship and the gunship continued on. "Who the frak are they?" Atler asked watching as several Viper Mk VII fighters joined the Seraph's remaining three Viper Mk IIIs in attacking the raiders. "Who cares, change course bring us in under them, try and raise them on Fleet Comm."

The gunship made short work on the third Basestar tearing it to pieces with concentrated fire the remaining two Cylon Basestars obviously thrown off by the appearance of the gunship, and their missiles now ineffective by the Heracles' flak barrage, had decided enough was enough and jumped out of the area to rethink their plans. "The Cylons are bugging out! More jump signatures!" Barnes called out as in space from behind the gunship two more ships began to jump into the area. Clear of Cylon threats and with additional ships behind them the pilot of the Gunship threw the ship into a turn with forward ventral thrusters and aft dorsal thrusters firing at the same time. The effect this had on the ship was to throw the nose of the ship directly upwards as it did other manoeuvring thrusters rolled the ship was it moved then forward dorsal thrusters and aft ventral thrusters also fired pushing the ship back down again. "Nice manoeuvre" Barnes commented watching her screens as the gunship rapidly began to break slowing its movements. The two ships that had jumped in had now completed their transition into the area both ships were Freja-class Battlestars and neither had begun to deploy Vipers DRADIS confirmed they were the Sirocco and the Tyraxes the ships he'd been expecting in the first place.

"Indeed" Atler noted watching his own screens "anything on fleet comm?" Matt Rowe looked up from the communications console and shook his head. "Who the frak are they, switch to standard communications!" He ordered it was a less secure form of communication but necessary in this case. Rowe nodded a few moments later and Atler keyed a panel above his head. "This is the Battlestar Seraph of the Colonial Fleet to unidentified gunship please identify."

"This is the Massena, confirm you are Colonial Fleet?"

"We are surviving elements of the fleet." Atler confirmed "I'm Commander Atler, may I ask who we are talking to."

"I'm the Commander of the Massena. Commander Atler, I'm willing to invite you onboard the Massena, otherwise we'll be leaving the area."

"You speak like a renegade, Commander, we are the fleet and we are here to defend the Colonies like you." Alter suggested though he couldn't think of a single active Heracles-class Gunship in the fleet the ship was ancient, studying the DRADIS information this one appeared to have been modified maybe it was an experimental model.

"I'm not a renegade nor are my crew" the man replied he didn't sound like he was a military officer "we're not officially active Colonial Fleet but we've been doing all we can." He confirmed that he was not a serving member of the fleet, what was left of it, but it still didn't explain where the gunship had come from. "Again, I'll invite you onboard Massena II or we'll be leaving and you can take the assistance on credit." The ship's commander responded he obviously did not want to get off his ship with three other ships in the area.

"I'll come onboard Massena Commander, my ship cannot presently jump, while my crew conduct repairs we can talk?" Atler suggested he didn't like the idea of remaining somewhere the Cylons knew they were but what choice did they have. With the Sirocco and the Tyraxes here they'd have support if they needed it.

Massena II, Heracles-class Gunship

Atler had transferred to the Massena II via Raptor docking with the ship in its small launch bay at the rear of the ship Atler noticed the Vipers and Raptor fitted neatly into the bay under the gunship's huge engines. Despite the crew claiming not to be military and few of them wearing anything like military uniforms the ship appeared to be being run efficiently. He was led through the ship to a meeting room again few of the crew he encountered wore military uniforms instead they wore uniform more like those seen on civilians' ships. At the meeting room he met with two men one younger who wore a civilian outfit made up of utility trousers and a red jacket with a dark utility vest underneath something he'd expect an engineer to wear adding to Atler's theory that this was an experimental test ship. The other man was older and he clearly belonged to the Colonial military with a duty military uniform which carried the rank insignia of a Major. "I am Commander Daniel Atler, the Captain of the Seraph."

"Commander Matthew Boyle, commander of the Massena II, and this is Major Patrick Sinclair, originally of 432nd Training Division based off Aerilon." He said introducing the older man who immediately saluted Atler. The Seraph's Commander returned the salute he noticed the Boyle didn't flinch as the two of them exchanged this ritual of respect shared by military officers.

"Aerilon is a distance from here" Atler said speaking to Sinclair seeing him as the ranking officer onboard the Massena Boyle might be acting as a commander of the ship due to his expertise and knowledge of the ship but the military officer was the true power on the ship and now another military officer was here Atler expected the Major to exert control. Matthew had expected this and allowed Sinclair to speak.

"Yes, sir, my unit evacuated onboard a Ranger-class transport following the Cylon assault. We were ambushed in space and Commander Boyle's ship rescued us. Sir, myself and my remaining marines owe Commander Boyle our lives and our loyalty." He explained Atler nodded his understanding perhaps there was more to this young man than he'd first thought.

"Understood" Atler said turning towards the younger man who had crossed his arms confidently he was dressed like any trader, or smuggler, that Atler had ever come across and he'd seen plenty. The Seraph was one of only a few active Orion-class ships in the Colonial arsenal and before the fall it had specifically been used against those people who would break the laws and threaten the Colonies. "Interesting ship for a trader" he said glancing around knowing fine that no civilian should have this ship "and you just happened across Major Sinclair?"

"We happened across nothing" Boyle said rebuking his comment refusing to bow down to the Colonial military that had failed them all. "I was under orders from Commander William Adama of the Battlestar Galactica to remain in the Colonies and find survivors while he and the Galactica led civilian fleet to safety out of the combat zone. My ship began with the Major and his people and continued to serve the survivors of the Colonies until we lost her over Picon. We rescued fleet survivors there and salvaged the Massena II from a dry-dock facility on the planet's surface."

"You engaged the Cylons on Picon's surface?" Atler asked surprised at what these people had done and surprised that the Galactica, of all the fleet's Battlestars, had survived and was leading a civilian fleet away from the Colonies but he was also very glad to hear that there were additional survivors.

"Briefly" Boyle admitted "we lost good people doing it but we were able to net ourselves a ship that could defend our people and take the fight to the Cylons when we needed to."

"And defend people it has done." Atler remarked remembering what it had done to the three Baseships. "Commander, I know you are not Colonial Fleet but you and your ship are welcome to accompany us back to our staging area and meet our command."

"There are more of you?" Sinclair asked surprised already they had seen three operational Battlestars even if all three were the Massena's size or smaller.

"Most of our people were part of the 32nd Recon Group, tasked with exploring the regions around the Colonies in search for habitable worlds and worlds with resources we could use. The Seraph was picked up by them just after the fall of the Colonies, my ship was alone after the fall and wouldn't have lasted without them." Atler explained remembering the first few hours after the Cylon attack wondering how a Scout Battlestar would survive without support. "We have safe harbour for your ship, and for its crew Commander."

"About that…" Boyle said pulling the chair out from under the table, beside him Sinclair did the same and suddenly Atler got the message that this was going to be a longer conversation than he had expected. Over the next hour Boyle and Sinclair explained what the ship and its crew had done over the last several weeks how they'd kept moving keeping the Cylons in check where they could and running for their lives when they couldn't. They also explained that the Massena II was not their only ship though they did not mention where the others were currently hiding. And finally, they showed Atler their Cylon prisoner Doral Aditya who was still in the Massena's brig and the other humanoid Cylon models that they had identified during the Massena's voyage.

"As you can understand, Commander, I am reluctant to reveal where my other ships are until you can check your own population for these infiltrators and for further Cylon bugs like those that Doral suggested were fitted to the Viper Mk VIIs. The 32nd would be the perfect target for such technology." Boyle finished

"That's a lot to take in" Atler admitted "we've known about the humanoid Cylons for a short period of time, this one" he said pointing the blonde female wearing a red dress "was encountered leading Centurions on Caprica along with one that looks very similar to Doral." He said "but we were not aware that there were so many… not that there were multiples of each model. And this one could be a problem" he said picking up a picture of a female in her late thirties with light brown hair "this is Colonel D'Anna Sousa, the executive officer of our flagship. She said she was the twin of news reporter D'Anna Biers and she took her wife's name she's at our staging area and onboard a ship that could take all of ours put together."

"Well, Commander, I have five thousand-and-seven hundred reasons to help you solve this problem." He said mentioning the members of his fleet rising from his chair Atler did the same as Boyle extended his hand to meet Atler's for a handshake "let's get to work."

Seraph, Orion-class Battlestar

It took several hours to outfit the Seraph and repair the damage done from engaging the Cylons. During that time Atler, Boyle and Sinclair had discussed their options with the other two Battlestar commanders while checks for Cylon infiltrators had been carried out onboard the two ships fortunately no more infiltrators had been found. They had collectively agreed that the easiest option to avoid a major fire fight was that the Seraph returned to the staging ground alone to make its report to the fleet leaving the Massena and the other two Battlestars behind to put the rest of the fleet. They'd explain that the two other Battlestars had taken damage fighting off the Cylons who had chased the Seraph, the ship was still damaged enough to show it had been in a fight.

Onboard the Seraph they'd carry enough of the Massena's marines to form a security cordon around Boyle and Atler while they made their way onboard the flagship and headed for the CIC to make their report. They'd keep their weapons down as much as possible but when they got to the flagship's CIC they might need the marine's firepower. It was a risk if anyone onboard thought they were a threat they'd get nowhere and the Seraph didn't have the firepower to get them out, this could go badly wrong but they needed to eliminate the Cylon threat. Time was their greatest threat.

When they were all onboard the Seraph made its jump out of the colonies making a longer jump than the Massena had ever made during its run through the colonies. "Jump complete" the jump officer said in the cramped CIC of the Seraph "there she is." He said glancing at DRADIS.

"Our flagship" Atler said showing Boyle the information on the screen as the Minerva-class Battlestar Rycon moved through space. Nearby there was another Freja-class Battlestar like the two they'd left with the Massena II and several civilian ships. "Rowe, send them a text message tell them our voice transceiver is damaged and that we'll be over with our report shortly." He ordered "ready?" He asked Matthew Boyle.

"We're doing this for my people and for your people Commander, I'm ready when you are let's go."


	17. Seventeen - The Rycon

All I'm glad you enjoyed the update; I have always meant to finish this one I enjoyed writing it the first time around.

Tus3 – I'll do my best to answer it in this one

Bill – the Freja is the class name for the Valkyrie-type Battlestar you see in the reimaged series. Like the Galactica is the Jupiter-class, the Valkyrie is an example of the Freja-class. This is not a canon name for the class just something I made up.

The Rycon

Seraph, Orion-class Scout Battlestar

Before they left the CIC Atler had ordered his XO to begin a search of the ships present near Seraph for anymore internal Cylon threats until the ships were cleared the Massena and her fighters would protect the area. Now working their way through the Seraph Matthew Boyle kept pace with Commander Daniel Atler, the Seraph was not a large vessel but it gave them several minutes to speak. "With the situation on Rycon, any idea how this area is still a safe zone?"

"The only reason I can think is we're in the Vilnius Cluster." Atler explained as they were walking Boyle stopped dead in his tracks.

"You're frakking kidding me?" He exclaimed in surprise the Vilnius Cluster was a no-go area for merchants from the colonies for several very good reasons. "I took the old Massena into the Cluster before when running… an important cargo…" He said stumbling over almost admitting he'd run contraband under the Colonial Navy's nose.

"We all had an old life, Commander"

"Anyway, it was nearly my last choice." He said "we jumped into one of the systems and things went from bad to worse random pieces of rock battering the hull, changing gravity forces. I took more damage than I would have running from the interceptor fighters." He explained

"I'm sure, and if you'd been disabled no-one would have been able to come and get you as communications out of the system do not work here." Atler explained as they continued to walk again "we're limited to the space that we are in. I have to assume the reason we're still alive here is that any Cylon agent hasn't been able to communicate our presence here."

"Luck" Boyle said shaking his head "you've gotten lucky no agent has been onboard one of your ships when they've jumped back to the colonies?"

"The Colonies are due some luck" Atler suggested. "The Recon Group spent six years before the Seraph joined them charting this cluster and they lost a lot of good people doing it. Because no-one is supposed to come to Vilnius their families came with them once the ground work was laid. Any shore leave taken was taken here." He explained suggesting there was a lot more to the Recon Group's operations here than he was letting on. "We've also had very limited operations out of the cluster, unlike your operations we haven't been cruising around the colonies looking for survivors spending a lot of time in space where the Cylons could track us, we've been running strike operations against the Cylons. Any agent on our ships doesn't have time to send messages to the Cylons or there aren't any left to take the message home."

"Decent strategy but they must know your ships are operating? There's no way that you're not leaving salvage for the Cylons to recover and download." Boyle pointed out

"They must know we're operating given the force that was sent after the Seraph" Atler noted "but they don't know where our base is and we do our best to leave minimal clues for them to follow. There are also more than a dozen potential bases in Vilnius, its possible they just haven't found us yet."

"And if they do, four Battlestars and support are not an insignificant force to deal with them." Boyle said as they headed to the four Raptors which were waiting for them. Each would carry a squad of marines nothing nearly enough to take on the complement of the Rycon but then they didn't need to take on all the marines. As they approached the marines gathered round front and centre was Major Patrick Sinclair and a squad of marines from the Massena II.

"Ok people we've been given clearance to go over to the Rycon to make our report. Our primary mission is to neutralize the ship's XO Colonel D'Anna Sousa, I'll be honest I'd rather not put a bullet in the toaster's head but if it comes to it, we will and we'll deal with the consequences." He said seeing multiple nods from the group that they understood their orders. "Commander Boyle" he said turning to Matthew.

"As Commander Atler said our primary mission is we are to neutralize D'Anna Sousa, but we're also going to begin screening the Rycon's crew for any more skinjobs that are onboard." Boyle said he saw a couple of smirks at the term he'd used for the humanoid Cylons. "You've all seen the mugshots we've got of the known humanoid Cylons if we encounter any others do not move against them straight away. Call in to Major Sinclair and await orders." He said nodding to the ground force Major "all actions against these skinjobs has to be coordinated so we can take them out together."

"It's a big frakking ship, sir, she's got a crew three times that we've got on the Massena." One of the marines pointed out.

"I know, we can't cover everyone at the same time, we don't expect you to cover everything." Boyle said looking around each of the marines arrayed around the area. "I want you all to remember the majority of the crew over there are as loyal to your beliefs as you are." He said "most of them are going to be a shocked as you with any agents we find, there are going to be at the most a couple of people who could cause us issues so we're going to target specific areas with our initial sweep. Major, please." Matthew said the Major stepped forwards joining the two commanders he now wore the same marine uniform as the other marines.

"Cylon strategy when trying to target a Battlestar are to take out the Secondary Damage Control Suite, if they gained control over it then they'd be able to take over control of the ship regardless of what the CIC did." Sinclair explained a Battlestar was generally capable of taking out multiple Cylon vessels before being destroyed but a Cylon boarding party could end the Battlestar's war just as easily as an external threat. "With that in mind we're going to spilt into five teams who will have different areas of responsibility, each team will have an explosive ordinance officer just in case. Teams one and two will converge on Secondary Damage control, Team One which I will lead, will gain access to the damage control suite while Team Two form a perimeter. Once we are inside no-one else is getting inside until I say so, non-lethal force is preferred but we'll do what we need to do. We are going to do nothing once we are there only make sure that there are no active Cylon threats inside and that the CIC can't use the ship against others in the local area should the command team fail in their mission. Team Three will support Commanders Atler and Boyle at the CIC with luck they deal with the skinjob and convince the command crew that we're not the threat other potential agents are. Team Four will proceed to main engineering and secure the area, if the Cylons want to damage the ship then that's a vulnerable sport. Similarly, Team five will proceed to the armoury. Your mission there is simple you make sure the crew there are doing their jobs properly and no-one is threatening the ship."

"Sirs, how do we gain access to these areas without tipping off the onboard marines? Each of those areas are going to be defended by multiple marines. There's little chance that one of them will not get to a weapon."

"I'm providing each team with a Commander's level inspection warrant. That will tip the marines off that there is an issue but if they are doing their jobs properly, they will check with CIC before attempting action." Atler explained a Commander's Warrant as it was known was an old Colonial inspection that was brought onto a ship when the Colonial Command believed there was something wrong on the ship. If the marines were handed one then they should know exactly what was going on the majority of ship's marines were charged with being loyal to the Colonies before their ships which made them a force that could be trusted on any ship by officials. "We will be at the CIC before you are all at your designated positions, we will convince the ship's CO that your actions are just. Any marine that tries to stop your teams from completing their mission are to be taken down with non-lethal force." He said he saw a few nervous glances between the marines "but if necessary, to complete your mission I will authorise lethal force as a last resort. And may the Gods have mercy on me if we need to use it."

Rycon, Minerva-class Battlestar

The Minerva-class Battlestar had originally been designed during the First Cylon War it was designed to provide the Colonies with heavy weapons fire which could be brought against multiple enemy targets. The larger modern Mercury-class had been developed from the Minerva-class and both were designed similarly with a large armoured sloped primary hull with multiple weapons emplacements and a large engine section at the rear. Along the sides of the primary hull were two large angular flight pods. While smaller than the Mercury or Jupiter-class vessels the Minerva was still one of the largest vessels that had served the Twelve Colonies, and now following the holocaust the Rycon was likely the largest active Colonial military vessel.

The four Raptors landed in the port side landing pod and were lowered to the fight deck and the marines left their ships. As with every flight pod in the Colonial fleet the flight deck was a hive of activity with engineers and mechanics working on the various fighters and raptors that were present in the bay. Both Atler and Boyle were approached by a duty officer wearing lieutenants' insignia who saluted them Atler returned the salute "we've got a report for the Admiral." Atler said indicating to himself and Boyle.

"Very good sir, if you'll follow me" Boyle glanced at Sinclair who nodded his understanding. The Lieutenant led them away from the flight bay and four marines followed slowly behind them maintaining a respectful distance but ready to assist if needed.

Despite the size of the Battlestar it didn't take them long to get to the CIC which was deep inside the primary hull. Entering the CIC Matthew Boyle saw that the facility was similar to that which was seen onboard a Jupiter-class Battlestar with the CIC built up over multiple levels around the centre map and DRADIS screens. At the centre table on one side was Admiral Miyka Sarkis, the son of Jubel Sarkis who served as the Supreme Commander of the Colonial Fleet during the first Cylon War, Boyle had thought he'd died six years before in a jump accident. Looking at him for a moment Boyle noted that Sarkis hair was almost entirely which a great contrast to his darker skin tone and his face weathered by action and age. On the other side of the table was Colonel D'Anna Sousa their target Atler and Boyle were led down through the CIC and presented to Admiral Sarkis. "Gentlemen, welcome onboard, Commander Atler congratulations on the success of your mission the Seraph has some new scars" he greeted them noting the new damage on Atler's vessel before turning towards Boyle.

"Thank you, Admiral, allow me to introduce Commander Boyle the commander of the vessel Massena, a Heracles-class Gunship, and a commander of a fleet of civilian vessels." He said introducing Matthew the fact that he commanded a vessel like the Massena got Sarkis attention as did more civilians surviving.

"More survivors" Sarkis said smiling his old face brightening at the thought "that's grand Commander Boyle, you are to be congratulated on your actions. How is it you ended up out of uniform?" He said looking at Matthew's civilian garb.

"Sir, I'm not a commissioned Commander within the fleet." He explained "I was charged with commanding the Massena before the fall of the Colonies and charged with searching for survivors by Commander William Adama of the Battlestar Galactica."

"Galactica survives!" Sarkis said smiling Boyle kept an eye on Colonel Sousa who's face was impassive at the new news. "Where is that old dog Adama?" By the way Sarkis spoke Boyle assumed the two knew each other.

"Adama and the Galactica lead a fleet of civilian ships which have left the colonies intent on ensuring the survival of humanity as a species."

"He's running" Sousa commented "running while we continue to fight." She said Sarkis looked at her and nodded his agreement before turning back to Boyle, Matthew didn't like what he was seeing Sarkis was well past his prime and Sousa appeared to have him wrapped around her little finger.

"She's right we do, and it appears Commander Boyle that you have to."

"Sir, Galactica defends at least fifty civilian ships carrying fifty thousand civilians. Commander Adama had little to no choice but to retreat." Boyle explained defending Adama's actions "sir, we have a more pressing concern instead of Adama's actions." Boyle said trying to steer the discussion in the way he wanted he glanced at Atler and nodded.

"Marines now!" Atler snapped the four marines they'd brought with them acted quickly with two dropping down on either side of Colonel Sousa flattening her to the floor quickly the other two stepped in their rifles ready. All around the CIC marines from the Rycon stepped in ready to bring down Atler's marines. "Rycon marines stand down! Admiral, order your men to stand down now" he said drawing his sidearm but not raising it. Boyle stood next to him his weapon drawn but not raised.

"Explain this, now damnit!" Sarkis ordered stunned by what had happened

"Sir, she's a frakking toaster!" Boyle said dropping the pictures of the various Cylon models onto the desk with D'Anna's model on the top. "We couldn't communicate it to you any other way." He explained as the marines dragged Colonel Sousa back to her feet, her likeness to the Cylon model picture was undeniable.

"Frak me" Sarkis whispered "how could you?" He asked the woman he'd trusted with his life.

"Admiral, this is a fabrication, they are trying to subvert your command!" She shouted angrily trying to wrestle away from the two marines that held her. Boyle had seen the humanoid models display greater strength and knew she was playing along.

"Commander, I hope you have mo…" Sarkis began only to be interrupted by an explosion deeper in the vessel. Boyle reacted quicker than the stunned admiral activating controls on the command table which activated the microphone and speakers.

"CIC, Sinclair, this is Boyle report now!" He snapped as weapons continued to be pointed by the various marines.

"Commander, this is Sinclair, Team Four encountered a skinjob in the engineering sector she reached for a weapon they had no choice but to use lethal force." He explained by the sound of it he was on the move "when they shot her there was an explosion, I have to assume it was a deadman's switch." He said explaining the explosion as one tied to the life of the Cylon agent. "I'm investigating but all teams should use non-lethal force.

"Understood" Boyle said cutting the channel "you frakkers thought you could take down our ships with suicide charges?" He said stepping up to Sousa "well no joy, we're going to throw you in a cell and you can die of old age before anymore go off." The Colonel resisted again this time snapping the bonds that held her unfortunately for her one of the marines was ready for such a move and clubbed her over the back of the head knocking her down unconscious.

While this went on Sarkis stood and watched shocked. Beside him Atler prodded the old Admiral to action "Sir, I need you to stand down your marines ship wide until my people have finished their work. I then request you lock down your launch bays on both the Rycon, the Asteria and any other ship until we've established there are no further agents onboard our ships and that ground bases are locked down until further notice." Boyle shot him a glance he'd been unaware of a ground base "sorry, things have been moving fast, I'll explain later." He said Boyle nodded a response. "Admiral, we need the Rycon to stand down now."

"Agreed" Sarkis said stepping forwards activating the internal announcement system "crew of the Rycon, this is Admiral Sarkis. I'm turning operational control of the Rycon over to Commander Daniel Atler of the Seraph. Follow his commands. Marines of Rycon, Major Sinclair is in operational command of your forces follow his commands." Sarkis said looking over at Atler who acted quickly.

"Communications, copy to the Asteria, all civilian ships and settlements nothing raises off the ground without my say so. Anything that attempts to launch will be targeted and destroyed if they are in the air without authorisation. Make that crystal clear. Send a message to the Seraph, I want her Vipers flying CAP until further notice everything deployed by the Rycon or Asteria is to be recalled until their crews and machines can be checked." He said making rapid fire orders before turning to the fallen Cylon "marines, take her to the brig, make sure there is nothing that can harm her there." He ordered finally the marines then picked her up.

"Boyle to Sinclair, you should have full cooperation now from Rycon's marines. Anything further to report?"

"They were trying to destroy the jump drive, sir, three crewmen dead." Sinclair reported "I've got our teams searching critical areas so far that's the only one we've found."

"It's over." Atler said finally

"For now" Boyle responded, they were far from out of the woods.


End file.
